Geographic loyalty system and method

ABSTRACT

The invention facilitates a loyalty system which is associated with pre-determined geographic locations and/or services and goods offered in a specific geographic area. The system is configured with one product platform with a modularized approach to facilitate the development of market specific rewards and communication materials. The loyalty points may be earned within a specific geographic location, then redeemed in one geographic location, a subset of locations or without restrictions. Similarly, the loyalty points may be earned in one geographic location, a subset of locations or without restrictions, then redeemed only in a specific geographic location. The geographic features of the system may be implemented using existing data that is associated with geographic areas such as, for example, zip codes, retailer identification codes, service establishment codes and/or the like. The geographic area information may be associated with the consumer, merchant, processing system and/or any other part of the overall system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to, and is a continuation-in-part of,U.S. Ser. No. 10/378,456, filed Mar. 3, 2003, and entitled “System andMethod for Real-Time Transfer of Loyalty Points Between Accounts.” The'456 application claims priority to, and is a continuation-in-part of,U.S. Ser. No. 10/027,984, filed Dec. 21, 2001, and entitled “System AndMethod For Networked Loyalty Program.” The '984 application claimspriority to, and is a continuation-in-part of, U.S. Ser. No. 09/836,213,filed Apr. 17, 2001, and entitled “System and Method for NetworkedLoyalty Program”, which itself claims priority to, and the benefit of,U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/279,817, filed Mar. 29, 2001,and entitled “System and Method for Networked Incentive Awards Program”.This application also claims benefit from, and priority to, U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/482,644, filed Jun. 26, 2003,which is all hereby incorporated by reference. This application herebyincorporates by reference all of these prior applications in theirentireties.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to loyalty systems, and moreparticularly, to a system and method for facilitating geographic basedrewards.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Loyalty reward programs (also known as incentive or frequency rewards)are typically developed to help businesses develop and maintainparticipant loyalty. Businesses also use the programs for marketingtools to develop new clientele. A frequent flyer program is an exampleof a typical loyalty program, where the more the participant uses aparticular airline or group of affiliated airlines the more frequentflyer miles the participant earns. After accumulating frequent flyermiles, the participant may choose to redeem those miles for upgrades inservice or free airline tickets. Various forms of these programs havedeveloped over the years, ranging from programs such as “buy 9, get 1”punch cards to more sophisticated credit card loyalty systems, whereparticipants are awarded points for using a particular transaction cardsand/or by using a transaction card with particular merchants or vendors.As competition in various markets increased, companies sought ways tofocus loyalty programs to appeal to a particular groups of potentialcustomers. One way this was accomplished was by developing strategicpartnerships and affiliations with other business sectors. For example,hotel chains, airlines and rental car agencies developed loyalty programpartnerships and affiliations; credit and transaction card companiesalso joined in to promote a more comprehensive and appealing loyaltyprogram.

These programs have been relatively successful; however, numerousloyalty programs exist, so businesses have a difficult timedifferentiating their loyalty programs from other loyalty programs onthe market. Moreover, many consumers often travel for work relatedreasons, so they may not desire to use their loyalty points to travel todistant cities or distant countries. Rather, many consumers enjoy thebenefits of their “hometown” region, including local restaurants, localtheaters, local sporting activities and other events. At the same time,marketers have begun to understand that many consumers develop a strongpride, emotional affinity and loyalty to the geographic region wherethey live. As such, a long-felt need exists for a loyalty program whichrewards consumers for purchases in certain local geographic areas andwhich enables consumers to utilize their loyalty points in similar localgeographic areas.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention includes a system and method for facilitating aloyalty system which is associated with predetermined geographiclocations and/or services and goods offered in a specific geographicarea. The system is configured with one product platform with amodularized approach to facilitate the development of market specificrewards and communication materials. In different embodiments, theloyalty points may be earned within a specific geographic location, thenredeemed in one geographic location, a subset of locations or withoutrestrictions. Similarly, the loyalty points may be earned in onegeographic location, a subset of locations or without restrictions, thenredeemed only in a specific geographic location. The geographic areainformation may be associated with the consumer, merchant, processingsystem and/or any other part of the overall system. The system may alsofacilitate the earning and redemption of points based upon productand/or service type. The system may also incorporate a conversion modulewhich may convert the value of the loyalty points or value of theproducts/services based on the geographic area exchange rates.

The invention includes a method for facilitating earning loyalty points,wherein the loyalty points are associated with a geographic area, andthe method includes: maintaining a database for storing geographic arealoyalty points in a loyalty account corresponding to a participant;receiving purchase data; determining a geographic area related to thepurchase data; determining an amount of geographic area loyalty pointsbased on the geographic area information and purchase data; and updatingthe loyalty account with the geographic area loyalty points. Receivingpurchase data may include: receiving and storing manufacturer itemidentifiers; receiving and processing a consumer ID; receiving andprocessing purchase data, wherein the purchase data comprises a retaileritem identifier; associating at least two of consumer ID, purchase data,and a manufacturer item identifier; and performing an analysis that isdependent upon the step of associating.

The invention also facilitates redeeming loyalty points, wherein theloyalty points are associated with a geographic area, by maintaining adatabase for storing geographic area loyalty points in a loyalty accountcorresponding to a participant; receiving a request related to arequested geographic redemption area to redeem an amount of thegeographic area loyalty points; determining if the requested geographicredemption area is associated with the geographic area loyalty points;and, adjusting the loyalty account based upon the amount of geographicarea loyalty points.

The invention further includes redeeming said geographic area loyaltypoints in a pre-determined geographic area. The determination of ageographic area may be accomplished by using at least one of: zip codes,retailer identification codes, retailer item identifier, storeidentifier, warranty data, service establishment codes, SKU codes, UPCmanufacturer codes, consumer ID, retailer ID, manufacturer ID, purchaserprofile, consumer enrollment data, retailer loyalty identifier, consumeraccount, aggregate consumer account, consumer profile, supplementarymember profile, and third party provider information. Calculating thegeographic area loyalty points may include using at least one of aformula, ratio, percentage, consumer level, global positioning systeminformation, point level, retailer level, manufacturer level, and rewardlevel. The method may be implemented by an interactive, online computersystem and may further include informing a consumer of the loyaltypoints in real-time at a point-of-sale, a suggestive sale in ageographic area, pooling, gifting and transferring the geographic arealoyalty points or receiving purchase data includes receiving consumerdata from a dual use transaction card.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived byreferring to the detailed description and claims when considered inconnection with the Figures, wherein like reference numbers refer tosimilar elements throughout the Figures, and:

FIGS. 1, 3, and 4 are schematic block diagrams illustrating exemplaryincentive systems in accordance with various aspects of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for instantenrollment at a point-of-sale in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary central rewardsmechanism in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary rewards server inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for capturingand processing POS SKU data in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for associatingSKU data and UPC data in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary profiling system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary profiler inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for generatinga purchaser profile in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process forstandardizing a transaction file in accordance with the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In general, the present invention includes a system and method forfacilitating a loyalty system which is associated with geographiclocations and/or services and goods offered in a specific geographicarea. In different embodiments, the loyalty points may be earned withina specific geographic location, then redeemed in one geographiclocation, a subset of locations or without restrictions. Similarly, theloyalty points may be earned in one geographic location, a subset oflocations or without restrictions, then redeemed only in a specificgeographic location. The system may also incorporate a conversion modulewhich may convert the value of the loyalty points or value of theproducts/services based on the geographic area exchange rates. Theconversion module may acquire exchange rate information from third partysystems and calculate the exchange rates in, for example, real-time.Details of the loyalty point earn and redemption process will bedescribed in more detail below. Interaction with the system may includecommunication to customer service representatives, entry into webpagesor any of the computing devices set forth herein. The financial orloyalty accounts may or may not be associated with any of thetransaction accounts or cards set forth below.

The geographic features of the system may be implemented using new typesof data collected during the transaction or using existing data that istypically collected in a transaction, wherein the existing data may alsobe associated with geographic areas such as, for example, zip codes,retailer identification codes, service establishment codes, SKU codes,UPC manufacturer codes and/or the like. The collected information may beassociated with any previously known information to perform dataanalysis related to the loyalty program on a local or network level(described in more detail below).

The geographic area information may be associated with the consumer,merchant, processing system and/or any other part of the overall system.For example, a consumer may have a home zip code in New Jersey with awork zip code in New York City, so the system may determine that theconsumer still qualifies for reward points from merchants with zip codesbased in New York City. The system may also determine that a “doublepoint” promotion may apply to purchases of products originating frommanufacturers in Tennessee. In a more complex embodiment, the system mayencourage New Jersey residents to shop for soap products from an Arizonamanufacturer (e.g., Dial Corporation) which are sold by a New Yorkmerchant. As such, the system may acquire, utilize and/or associate theconsumer home zip code, the merchant building zip code, and the SKUinformation from the soap. In another embodiment, the rewards may have atheme related to the city. For example, New Orleans awards may berelated to Jazz shows and Mardi Gras activities, while New York Cityawards may be related to Broadway shows, dining and other entertainmentor sports venues. The awards may also include full geographic“experiences” such as, for example, dinner, backstage passes, cocktailswith the cast, and movie premiers.

The system may also facilitate the earning and redemption of pointsbased upon product or service type (e.g., restaurant, gasoline, sportinggoods, entertainment). For example, the system may facilitate earning anincreased amount of points for purchases at any restaurant, but allowingthe points to be redeemed only at certain restaurants. Similarly, thepoints may be earned at only certain restaurants, but redeemed at alarger group of restaurants. The system may also allow the redemption ofa multiple of the amount of earned points if the redemption is for aparticular product type, but the points are not multiplied if theredemption is for different product types. For example, the system mayaward twice the amount of points when purchasing Shell gasoline, thenallowing the point value to be four times the amount of points only whenredeeming the points for Shell gasoline. However, if the same points areused to purchase Mobil gasoline, the point value is only twice thenumber of points earned.

The system may include online interfaces, dial-up interfaces through POSterminals or any of the other hardware, software and communicationsdiscussed herein. In one embodiment, the system is configured with oneproduct platform with a modularized approach to facilitate thedevelopment of market specific rewards and communication materials.Particularly, any geographic location and associated merchants may beinput into a version of the present invention such that the inventionfacilitates similar features and functions in any newly createdgeographic region. For example, the system may be fully functional withvarious merchants, rewards and residents in the Manhattan, N.Y. area.Different data may be inputted into the same system in order tofacilitate similar functionality in the Phoenix, Ariz. area, along withcreating rewards and marketing material related to Phoenix merchants. Inthis regard, a participant may use a particular ID or password to accessthe system online, wherein the particular ID instructs the system toprovide functions and marketing materials or displays related to theappropriate geographical region. For example, inputting ID #1234 into aweb site may result in a web page displaying various rewards redeemableat various Manhattan merchants. Similarly, inputting ID #5678 into thesame web site may result in a web page displaying various rewardsredeemable at various Phoenix merchants.

The present invention also includes facilitating the transfer ofgeographic area loyalty points between accounts. In an exemplaryembodiment, the invention includes facilitating the substantiallyreal-time transfer of geographic area loyalty points between accounts.While the invention will be discussed in terms of a general transfer ofgeographic area loyalty points, one skilled in the art will appreciatethat the transfer may include a deduction from a first account and acrediting of a second account. Moreover, the transfer may involve anyportion of the points transferred in real-time, certain pointstransferred in a batch transfer, certain points transferred upon atriggering event, certain points transferred over time and/or certainpoints transferred upon satisfaction of a condition or rule.

In one embodiment, the system includes any hardware and/or softwarediscussed herein or known in the art suitably configured for receiving atransfer request (e.g., consumer request, triggering event, etc.) for atransfer of a any portion of geographic area loyalty points, accessingand analyzing the total number of loyalty points in the transferoraccount related to a particular geographic area to determine if asufficient number of points exist, analyzing the type/level of consumerand type/level of points (including geographic area associated with thepoints) to be involved in the transfer, determining if any rules existfor restricting or limiting the transfer of points (e.g., only transferpoints to an account having other points in a particular geographicarea), using a conversion engine to convert the point value to anappropriate point value in the transferee account, deducting therequested loyalty points from the transferor account, and increasing thepoint balance in the transferee account.

In accordance with the present invention, geographic area loyalty pointsassociated with a certain loyalty system may be transferred to otherloyalty point accounts within the same loyalty system or to a loyaltypoint account in any other loyalty point system. For example, HiltonReward points may be transferred to a United Airlines frequent flyeraccount. In one embodiment, a conversion engine facilitates any pointvalue conversions that may be appropriate. For example, if a consumerdesires to transfer five hundred Hilton Reward points to a UnitedAirlines frequent flyer account, the conversion engine may determinethat the five hundred Hilton Rewards points only translate into onehundred United Airlines frequent flyer points. As such, the system wouldonly increase the United Airlines frequent flyer account by one hundredpoints. The rules or formulas associated with the conversion engine maybe pre-established by the loyalty point system hosts. The transfer ofany portion of loyalty points in a consumer account may be initiatedupon a triggering event such as, for example, a request by thetransferor, a request by a transferee, a request by a loyalty systemhost, a request by a third party, a transfer on a certain date or time,a percentage of points transferred during certain time periods and/or anautomatic transfer upon a pre-established condition or data point. Thetransfer may also include certain conditions that must be met prior to,during and/or after the transfer. If certain conditions are not met, thetransfer may be voided or expire and/or any portion of the loyaltypoints may be returned to the original transferor, to the loyaltysystem, to another consumer loyalty account or to any other third party.For example, after receiving transferred loyalty points, if thetransferee does not earn a certain amount of loyalty points on her ownin a certain geographic area, the transferred loyalty points aretransferred to another supplementary member. The system may also creditany portion of the loyalty points to one or more loyalty point accounts,wherein any geographic area restrictions may or may not apply. Forexample, the consumer may request that the loyalty points be transferredto an account associated with a family member, a friend, a charitableorganization and/or the like.

The transaction card of the present invention may also include a dualpurpose transaction device which combines geographic-based loyaltyfunctionality, financial transaction functionality (e.g., charge card)and access functionality (e.g., access to public transportation,including payment of the transportation fare). The card may include oneor more magnetic stripes related to each functionality. The card orother transponder device may alternatively include two different RFIDsignals for each functionality.

As used herein, a “geographic area” or similar terms may include all orany portion of any street, city, county, state, country, continent,region (e.g., SoHo district, Chinatown), or any other areas, includingcombinations or subsets of areas. The geographic areas may relate to anyof the participants, products, services or identifications. Thegeographic areas may relate to any associated geographic area such as,for example, a geographic area associated with a participant's homeresidence, work residence, travel areas or the like. The geographic areamay also be automatically established based on the geographic area wherea participant is located at the time (or at any established time period)based on, for example, cellular phone caller location relative tocellular towers or a global positioning system. The geographic areas mayalso be associated with where the product is manufactured, distributed,sold or the like. Moreover, while certain embodiments may refer to onlya specific geographic area for brevity, the invention also contemplatesother similar embodiments for multiple geographic areas or subsets ofareas.

As used herein, “participant” may include any user, person, entity,charitable organization, machine, hardware, software, merchant orbusiness who accesses and uses the system of the invention, includingconsumers (such as primary members and supplementary members of anaggregate consumer account), retailers, manufacturers, and third-partyproviders, including any subsets, groups or combinations thereof.Participants in the system may interact with one another either onlineor off-line. The terms “participant”, “purchaser”, “customer”,“consumer”, “primary member”, and “end-user” may be used interchangeablywith each other, and each shall mean any person, entity, charitableorganization, or business which uses a consumer ID to participate in thepresent system. The participant may reside in a geographic area and workin a different geographic area.

As used herein, the term “online” refers to interactive communicationsthat take place between participants who are remotely located from oneanother, including communication through any of the networks orcommunications means described herein or the like.

The term “manufacturer” shall include any participant, person, entity,charitable organization, machine, software, hardware, and/or the likethat manufactures, distributes, or originates a product or service whichmay ultimately be offered to a consumer directly or indirectly through aretailer. The term “manufacturer” may also include any party thatgenerates and/or provides manufacturer item identifiers. Themanufacturer item identifier may include information related to thegeographic area of the item or the geographic area of the manufacturer'smanufacturing plant, headquarters or divisions.

The term “retailer” shall include any person, entity, charitableorganization, machine, software, hardware, and/or the like that thatoffers a product or service to a consumer. As used herein, the term“retailer” is used interchangeably with the term “merchant”. Moreover,in this context, a retailer or merchant may offer or sell, either onlineor offline, products and/or services made or supplied by at least onemanufacturer. The retailer or any distributors, suppliers, affiliates,franchises and the like may be located in one or more geographic areas.

As used herein, the phrases “network level” and “network-wide level”shall refer to a system that includes more than one retailer.

A “consumer ID”, as used herein, includes any device, code, or otheridentifier suitably configured to allow a consumer to interact orcommunicate with the system, such as, for example, a rewards card,charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card,smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card, authorization/accesscode, personal identification number (PIN), Internet code, or otheridentification code, signal or indicia. Additionally, a “consumer ID”may comprise any form of electronic, radio frequency, transponder,magnetic, and/or optical device capable of transmitting or downloadingdata from itself to a second device which is capable of interacting andcommunicating with such forms of consumer ID.

“Consumer enrollment data” may comprise any of the following: name;address; zip code; home geographic area; work geographic area; date ofbirth; social security number; email address; gender; the names of anyhousehold members; a credit card number for charging any fees that maybe associated with participation in the system; survey data; interests;educational level; spending trends; and/or any preferred brand names. Aconsumer may register to participate in the present system by anymethods known and practiced in the art. For example, a consumer may beenrolled automatically (e.g., if the consumer holds an existing consumeraccount with the system administrator), over the phone, at the point ofsale (e.g., through a paper application, a verbal interview, or instantenrollment using a retailer loyalty identifier, as described herein),through the mail, or through instant enrollment online. Upon enrollment,the consumer receives a consumer ID that is associated with a consumeraccount. Enrollment data may be updated periodically, either by theconsumer requesting that the data be updated to reflect changes oradditions or the system requesting that the consumer review and updatethe data as needed, for example.

As used herein, a “retailer loyalty identifier” may include any device,code, or other identifier which permits a consumer to interact orcommunicate with a retailer system, including a retailer terminal, andindicate their participation in a retailer loyalty program which may beoffered by a particular retailer or a group of retailers. Exemplaryretailer loyalty identifiers may comprise any of the following: arewards card, charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card,telephone card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,authorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, radio frequency card and/orthe like. Additionally, a retailer loyalty identifier may comprise anyform of plastic, electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, audio and/oroptical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itselfto a second device which is capable of interacting and communicatingwith such retailer loyalty identifiers.

As used herein, a “consumer account” shall mean any account whichspecifies a consumer as a holder of the account and which posts,records, stores, or tracks a consumer's activity that is related toparticipation in the loyalty program. In one embodiment, the consumeraccount may post or record any of the following types of information:purchasing activity (e.g., items purchased and/or purchase amounts),reward points earning activity, reward points redemption activity, bonusofferings activity, and the like.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the consumer ID may beassociated with an aggregate consumer account which specifies theconsumer as a primary member and permits the association of any numberof supplementary members with the primary member. In one embodiment,supplementary members are affiliated with the primary member, such as bybeing a member of the primary member's household, business,organization, and the like. In another embodiment, supplementary membersare selected by the primary member for association with the primarymember's aggregate consumer account on any basis deemed suitable by theprimary member. For example, a primary member may associate friends,coworkers, family members, or any other group of individuals orentities. In one embodiment, both primary members and supplementarymembers may earn and redeem reward points which are posted to theaggregate consumer account or to any of several accounts that may beassociated with the aggregate consumer account. In another embodiment, asupplementary member may only redeem reward points which that particularsupplementary member has earned. In a further embodiment, asupplementary member may only redeem a quantity of reward points whichthe primary member has authorized for redemption by that particularsupplementary member. The primary and supplementary members may beassociated with the same, overlapping or different geographic areas.

As used herein, the phrase “aggregate consumer account” shall mean anyaccount which specifies a primary member and permits the association ofany number of supplementary members with the primary member. In oneembodiment, an aggregate account may be the sole account that associatesthe primary member with the supplementary members and reflects theactivity of the primary member and any supplementary members. In anotherembodiment, an aggregate consumer account may be associated withmultiple accounts that may each be associated with a supplementarymember. For example, an aggregate consumer account may aggregate andpost, record, store, or track all relevant activity engaged in by theprimary member and any supplementary members that are associated withthe aggregate consumer account. This aggregate activity may be reportedsolely to the primary member. Further, each supplementary member may beassociated with a sub-account which posts only activity engaged in bythe particular supplementary member. The activity in this sub-accountmay be reported only to the supplementary member associated with thesub-account. In this manner, the primary member may oversee the activityof each of the supplementary members, but each of the supplementarymembers cannot oversee the activity of either the primary member orother supplementary members.

The phrase “supplementary member” shall mean any person, entity,charitable organization, or business which uses a supplementary memberID to participate in the present system. It will be appreciated that, incertain contexts, the phrase “supplementary member” may be usedinterchangeably with the terms “purchaser”, “customer”, “consumer”, and“end-user”, since a “supplementary member” is a particular type of“consumer”. A “supplementary member ID”, as used herein, includes anydevice, code, or other identifier suitably configured to allow asupplementary member to interact or communicate with the system, suchas, for example, a rewards card, charge card, credit card, debit card,prepaid card, telephone card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar codecard, authorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like. Additionally,a “supplementary member ID” may comprise any form of electronic,magnetic, and/or optical device capable of transmitting or downloadingdata from itself to a second device which is capable of interacting andcommunicating with such forms of supplementary member ID.

A supplementary member may be registered to participate in the presentsystem by any methods known and practiced in the art. In one embodiment,a supplementary member is registered by a primary member. For example, asupplementary member may be enrolled by a primary member over the phone,at the point of sale (e.g., through a paper application, verbalinterview, or instant enrollment using a retailer loyalty identifier),through the mail, or through instant enrollment online. In anotherembodiment, a supplementary member is authorized to register by aprimary member, and the supplementary member self-enrolls in view of theauthorization. For example, a primary member may provide the systemadministrator with some indicia of authority to process the registrationof a supplementary member, if and when the authorized supplementarymember chooses to enroll in the system. The indicia of authority mayinclude any suitable information, such as, for example, any of thefollowing information regarding the supplementary member: name, address,social security number, employee number, date of birth, and the like.Supplementary member enrollment data may comprise any of the following:name; address; zip code; home geographic area; work geographic area;date of birth; social security number; email address; gender; a creditcard number for charging any fees that may be associated withparticipation in the system; survey data; interests; educational level;and/or any preferred brand names. Upon enrollment, the supplementarymember receives a supplementary member ID which is associated with theprimary member's aggregate consumer account. In one embodiment, thesupplementary member ID may also be associated with, related to,identical to, contain a portion of, or expand upon the primary member'sconsumer ID.

A “consumer profile”, as used herein, shall refer to any data used tocharacterize a consumer and/or the behavior of a consumer. In thecontext of a commercial transaction, “a consumer profile” shall beunderstood to include, for example, the time and date of a particularpurchase, the frequency of purchases, the volume/quantity of purchases,the transaction size (price), and/or the like. Additionally, in othertransactional contexts, the term “consumer profile” shall also beunderstood to include non-purchase behaviors of a consumer, such asconsumer enrollment data, visiting a Web site, referrals of prospectiveparticipants in the system, completion of a survey or other informationgathering instrument, and/or the like. For instance, a participatingonline consumer may earn reward points automatically through atriggering event, such as visiting a Web site, completing an onlinesurvey, or clicking on a banner advertisement for example. Offline, aparticipating consumer may earn reward points by completing a task orshowing their consumer ID to the cashier and triggering the cashier toprovide a “behavior” ID which may be input (e.g., by scanning a bar codeon a paper survey for example) into the POS terminal. Further, anyaspects of the consumer profile may be used in the context of dataanalysis.

A “supplementary member profile”, as used herein, shall refer to anydata used to characterize a supplementary member and/or the behavior ofa supplementary member. In the context of a commercial transaction, “asupplementary member profile” shall be understood to include, forexample, the time and date of a particular purchase, the frequency ofpurchases, the volume/quantity of purchases, the transaction size(price), and/or the like. Additionally, in other transactional contexts,the term “supplementary member profile” shall also be understood toinclude non-purchase behaviors of a supplementary member, such assupplementary member enrollment data, visiting a Web site, referrals ofprospective participants in the system, completion of a survey or otherinformation gathering instrument, and/or the like. For instance, aparticipating online supplementary member may earn reward pointsautomatically through a triggering event, such as visiting a Web site,completing an online survey, or clicking on a banner advertisement forexample. Offline, a participating supplementary member may earn rewardpoints by completing a task or showing their supplementary member ID toa cashier and triggering the cashier to provide a “behavior” ID whichmay be input (e.g., by scanning a bar code on a paper survey forexample) into the POS terminal. Further, any aspects of thesupplementary member profile may be used in the context of dataanalysis.

A “third-party provider” may comprise any additional provider of goodsand/or services to a consumer. Specifically, a “third-party provider”includes any party other than the particular manufacturer and retailerwho is involved in a transaction with a consumer. A third-party providermay include, for example, a financial institution, such as a bank or anissuer of a financial instrument (such as a credit card or a debitcard). A third-party provider may also include a provider of goods andservices which are offered as awards to consumers in exchange for arequisite number of reward points.

Though the invention may generically be described with reference to aseries of transactions which transfer a good or service from anoriginating party to an intermediary party and a subsequent transactionwhich transfers the good or service from the intermediary party to anend-user of that good or service, for convenience and purposes ofbrevity and consistency, the present disclosure generally refers to theoriginating party as a “manufacturer”, the intermediary party as a“retailer”, the end-user as a “consumer” (including primary membersand/or supplementary members), and a good or service as a “product” or“item”. However, it will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in theart that the retailer need not provide a product or item to a consumerin exchange for monetary currency. While this often may be the case, thepresent disclosure is not so limited and includes transactions which maybe gratuitous in nature, whereby the retailer transfers a product oritem to a consumer without the consumer providing any currency or othervalue in exchange. It is further noted that additional participants,referred to as third-party providers, may be involved in some phases ofthe transaction, though these participants are not shown. Exemplarythird-party providers may include financial institutions, such as banks,credit card companies, card sponsoring companies, or issuers of creditwho may be under contract with financial institutions. It will beappreciated that any number of consumers, retailers, manufacturers,third-party providers, and the like may participate in the system of thepresent invention.

As used herein, the term “UPC” and the phrase “manufacturer itemidentifier” shall refer to any symbol or indicia which providesinformation and, in an exemplary embodiment, shall refer to any number,code, or identifier assigned by a manufacturer and associated with anitem, including any type of goods and/or services, ultimately offered toa consumer or other end-user. The UPC may include geographic areainformation related to the origin of the product, where the product isbeing sold, the various geographic areas the product is distributedand/or the like.

A UPC is sometimes referred to as a SKU number. However, as used herein,the term “SKU” and the phrase “retailer item identifier” shall refer toany symbol or indicia which provides additional information and, in anexemplary embodiment, shall refer to any number, code, or identifierassigned by a retailer and associated with an item, including any typeof goods and/or services, offered to a consumer or other end-user (suchas a supplementary member for example). The SKU may include geographicarea information related to the origin of the product, where the productis being sold, the various geographic areas the product is distributedand/or the like.

“Purchase data”, as used herein, comprises data relating to the offer ofany item to a consumer, supplementary member, or other user of goodsand/or services. Purchase data may include data regarding any or all ofthe following: geographic area of purchase, an item purchased; an itemprice; a number of items purchased; a total transaction price; a paymentvehicle (e.g., cash, credit card, debit card, check, etc.); a time,date, and/or day of the week associated with a purchase; a storeidentifier; an employee identifier; a retailer item identifier; aloyalty identifier; a retailer loyalty identifier; a consumer's use of(which includes a reference to) a marketing offer (e.g., a coupon, abonus offering, reward points, etc.); whether a purchase transactiontakes place online or offline; and/or the like. In one embodiment,purchase data may also include any data relating to a product or servicewarranty that may apply to a purchased item. Such “warranty data” mayinclude any of the following: the duration of the manufacturer'swarranty, the scope of the warranty (e.g., limitations that may apply),any consumer purchased extensions of the manufacturer's warranty, andthe like.

“Retailer ID”, as used herein, comprises any symbol, indicia, code,number, or other identifier that may be associated with a retailer ofany type of goods and/or services offered to a consumer, supplementarymember, or other end-user. A retailer ID may also include or beassociated with a “store ID”, which designates the geographic area of aparticular store.

A “manufacturer ID” comprises any symbol, indicia, code, number, orother identifier that may be associated with a manufacturer of any typeof goods and/or services ultimately offered to a consumer, supplementarymember, or other end-user. A manufacturer ID may also include geographicarea information related to the location of a manufacturer (e.g.,headquarters, manufacturing facility), distributors, suppliers or thelike.

An “award” or “reward” may comprise any quantity of products, services,coupons, gift certificates, rebates, reward points, bonus points,credits or debits to a financial instrument, entertainment packages,theme packages of items, any combination of these, and/or the like.

A “purchaser profile”, as used herein, shall refer to and/or include anydata used to characterize a consumer and/or the behavior of a consumerand may be derived from other data, such as, for example, geographicarea information, consumer enrollment data and purchase data. A“purchaser profile” may include, and/or convey information regarding,any or all of the following: consumer enrollment data; the time, date,and/or day of the week of a particular purchase; the item(s) purchased;the price of the item(s) purchased; the purchase frequency forparticular items; the volume/quantity of purchases, either in terms oftotal dollars spent or item quantities; spend levels over the course ofa given time period; spend levels for a given category of products;responses to marketing offers; whether purchases were made online oroffline; the transaction size (price); a purchaser's brand preferences;a retailer item identifier; a manufacturer item identifier; theexistence and terms of a product warranty associated with an itempurchased; the status (e.g., current or almost expired) of a productwarranty associated with a purchased item; geographic area informationrelated to any of the foregoing information, and/or the like. It will beappreciated that while particular types of data may be described hereinas either “purchase data” or “enrollment data”, these categories of dataneed not be exclusive of one another and may overlap. For example, inalternate embodiments of the invention, data types that may be describedherein as “purchase data” may be included as “enrollment data”, and datatypes that may be described herein as “enrollment data” may be includedas “purchase data”. Moreover, in further embodiments, data types thatare described herein as being a part of one of these data categoriesmay, instead, be a part of the other data category.

“Data analysis”, as used herein, shall be understood to comprisequantitative and qualitative research, statistical modeling, regressionanalyses, market segmentation analyses, econometrics, and/or the like.Such analyses may be used to characterize a consumer, predict aconsumer's behavior, and/or correlate any of the following: a consumerprofile, a part of a consumer profile, a supplementary member profile, apart of a supplementary member profile, consumer enrollment data,purchase data, retailer data, manufacturer data, product or servicedata, and/or the like.

Since rewards, which may be in the form of reward points, may be earnedacross the various tiers and geographic areas in the network, rewardsmay also be used or spent across the various tiers and geographic areasin the network. Thus, any reward points that an employee, for example,may earn by promoting a particular manufacturer's line of products, maybe “spent” by that employee on goods or services provided by anyparticipant in the network, not merely at the retailer who employs thatemployee. Likewise, any reward points earned by a consumer may be spenton goods or services offered by any participant in the network. However,the earning or redeeming of the points may include geographic rules orrestrictions.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the use ofgeographic based loyalty points or rewards by the system facilitatesdata analysis on a network level based upon several factors, includingany of the following: geographic area, consumer ID, consumer profile,supplementary member ID, supplementary member profile, retailer ID, SKUnumber, UPC, manufacturer ID, and/or the like. The system may compileany of the above data across multiple participants for the purpose ofdata analysis, such as analyses which may be employed in strategicplanning and marketing for example. The system of the invention may beused to compile, analyze, and report data in a manner which would informany or all network participants that, for example, a specific consumer(1) has made multiple purchases of particular manufacturers' products ina certain geographic area; (2) has spent Q dollars over a certain timeperiod in a certain geographic area; (3) at specific multiple retailersin certain geographic areas; and (4) of the purchases made, R dollarswent towards the purchase of Product 1 manufactured in a certaingeographic area, S dollars went towards the purchase of Product 2 soldin a certain geographic area, and T dollars went towards the purchase ofService 1 offered in a certain geographic area. Moreover, the system maybe used to compile, analyze, and report data that enable a retailer, amanufacturer, and/or a third-party provider to create a variety oftargeted marketing promotions, such as, for example, (1) marketingProduct 1 offered by Manufacturer 1 to consumers in a certain geographicarea who purchase Product 2 offered by Manufacturer 2; (2) marketingProduct 1 offered by Manufacturer 1 and sold by Retailer X to consumersin a certain geographic area who purchase Product 2 offered byManufacturer 2 at Retailer Y; and/or (3) marketing Product 1 offered byManufacturer 1 and sold by Retailer X to consumers in a certaingeographic area who purchase Product 2 offered by Manufacturer 2 atRetailer Y five times a year. It will be appreciated that these are buta few of the many possible applications for data gathered and generatedby the system of the present invention.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the systemadministrator may allocate reward points to participants in the system.The reward points may be associated with a particular geographic area.In one embodiment, participating retailers and/or manufacturers in acertain geographic area may purchase geographic area specific pointsfrom the system administrator and the points are then allocated to anaccount associated with the retailer and/or manufacturer. For example, aNew York City retailer near Broadway may purchase 1,000 points which,when a sufficient number are collected, entitle the consumer to a freeBroadway show next to the retailer's place of business. In an alternateembodiment, the system administrator may give or donate points toparticipating retailers and/or manufacturers. The system administratormaintains an account with each of the participating retailers andmanufacturers and tracks available points balances and/or balances owingon a rolling basis. The points purchased by the retailers and/ormanufacturers may then be earned by and issued to consumers in a mannerthat is predetermined by the retailer and/or manufacturer involved inthe transaction with the consumer. For example, Retailer 1 may purchase10,000 points from the system administrator and then offer consumers 1point for every $10 dollars spent in Retailer 1″s store or, perhaps,some number of points for every fifth transaction in the store.Moreover, Manufacturer 1 located in Michigan, who produces the productoffered by Retailer 1 in Michigan, may also purchase points from thesystem administrator. Thus, when a consumer purchases Manufacturer 1'sproduct at Retailer 1, Manufacturer 1 may issue some number of points tothe consumer, wherein the points entitle the consumer to a free dinnerat a Detroit restaurant. The issuance of points, either by retailers ormanufacturers, may be based upon any selected criteria, including apoints-for-dollars ratio or percentage, a defined quantity of points peritem or per transaction, some combination of these, and/or the like. Theissuance of points may also include ratios based upon geographic area.For example, 1000 points to be redeemed in Detroit may be purchased for$1000, but the same 1000 points to be redeemed in New York City may cost$2000 because the rewards may be more expensive (e.g., more expensivefor a dinner).

The system administrator maintains an account for each participatingconsumer and apprises the consumer of the points totals and accountactivity. The consumer may have one (or a subset of accounts) whichinclude points associated with different geographic areas or separateaccounts for each geographic area. The consumer may search or viewpoints based upon geographic area designation or combinations ofdesignations. The system may allow the consumer to transfer points fromone geographic area designation to another geographic area designationor combine points from different designations, wherein the transfer orcombining may include a transfer ratio. For example, the consumer mayonly be allowed to transfer 1000 New York City points to 500 Denverpoints. The consumer may review the total number of points in theaccount either online or off-line, such as through a periodic statementsent by the system administrator or through the use of a communicationsnetwork, such as the Internet, for example. Points in the consumer'saccount may be accumulated across the multiple retailers and/ormanufacturers participating in the system and the accumulation may belimited to combining points from similar geographic areas. Thus, pointsearned by a consumer based upon transactions with different retailersand/or manufacturers in the same geographic area may combined, resultingin a rapid accrual of points.

The system administrator offers a catalog of products and servicesrelated to different geographic areas, which may be either online oroff-line, from which consumers may select rewards in exchange for theapplicable accrued points. In this manner, consumers advantageously earnpoints based upon their everyday purchases of products and services in acertain geographic area, these points are accrued across retailersand/or manufacturers in a certain geographic area, and points redemptiontakes place through a catalog of rewards from the same geographic area.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the systemadministrator may maintain an aggregate consumer account for aparticipating consumer (primary member) regardless of the geographicarea where the points are, or may be, earned. The aggregate consumeraccount is established, for example, by the primary member, who enrollsor permits enrollment of any number of supplementary members who areidentified by the primary member, wherein the supplementary members mayobtain points in the same or different geographic area as the primarymember. In one embodiment, a consumer may establish an aggregateconsumer account to encompass members of the primary member's household,business, charitable organization, and the like. In another embodiment,supplementary members are selected by the primary member for associationwith the primary member's aggregate consumer account on any basis deemedsuitable by the primary member. For example, a primary member mayassociate friends, co-workers, family members, or any other group ofindividuals or entities in the same or different geographic area as theprimary member. In one embodiment, each supplementary member isassociated with a supplementary member ID number, which uniquelyidentifies the supplementary member (e.g., as Supplementary Member 1,Supplementary Member 2, etc.) and which affiliates the supplementarymember with the primary member, a geographic area associated with theprimary member, the primary member's consumer ID, and/or the primarymember's aggregate consumer account. As discussed herein, thesupplementary member accounts may be aggregated or divided by geographicarea.

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, supplementary members mayboth earn reward points and redeem reward points based upon theirparticipation in the system of the invention. In one embodiment, thesupplementary member ID is used to identify reward points earningtransactions and reward points redemption transactions engaged in by aparticular supplementary member, as distinguished from transactionsengaged in by the primary member or other supplementary members of theaggregate consumer account. In this manner, the aggregate consumeraccount may track aggregate points totals and account activity for allmembers (primary and supplementary) of the aggregate consumer account aswell as track particular point totals and account activity for eachmember (primary and supplementary) of the aggregate consumer account. Inone embodiment, a primary member may redeem all or any of the rewardpoints accumulated in the aggregate consumer account in the same ordifferent geographic area as the supplementary members. In anotherembodiment, a primary member may designate a particular supplementarymember(s) as eligible to redeem any or all of the reward points in theaggregate consumer account and the primary member or any otherparticipant may limit the redemption to a specific geographic area. In afurther embodiment, each supplementary member may redeem those rewardpoints which have been earned by the particular supplementary member ina specific geographic area. In still another embodiment, a supplementarymember may only redeem a quantity of reward points which the primarymember has authorized for redemption by that particular supplementarymember in a specific geographic area. In yet another embodiment, a firstsupplementary member may designate a second supplementary member aseligible to redeem in a specific geographic area any or all of thereward points earned by the first supplementary member in a specificgeographic area.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a consumer may review thetotal number of points in an account either online or off-line, such asthrough a periodic statement sent by the system administrator or throughthe use of a communications network, such as the Internet, for example.Points in the consumer's account are accumulated across the multipleretailers and/or manufacturers participating in the system. Thus, pointsearned by a consumer based upon transactions with different retailersand/or manufacturers in a specific geographic area are combined,resulting in a rapid accrual of points. The system administrator offersa catalog of products and services, which may be either online oroff-line, from which consumers may select rewards in exchange foraccrued points. In this manner, consumers advantageously earn pointsbased upon their everyday purchases of products and services in aspecific geographic area, and these points are accrued across retailersand/or manufacturers in a specific geographic area.

In one embodiment, a consumer may redeem earned points through aspecific geographic area catalog of rewards, which may include productsand services offered by any number of merchants in a specific geographicarea, which merchants may or may not be participants in the system. Thecatalog may be offered to the consumer in both online and offlineformats. In another embodiment, a consumer may redeem earned pointsthrough a customized online catalog, which presents to the consumer asub-set of rewards from the catalog in a specific geographic area thatare particularly relevant to the consumer. The relevance of particularrewards to the consumer may be defined based upon any suitable criteria,such as the consumer's self-characterization (such as by indicating andinputting particular demographics information through a suitable userinterface, as is well-known and practiced in the art) or the consumer'sreward points total in a specific geographic area, for example. Thecustomized online catalog may also include products and services offeredby any number of merchants in a specific geographic area.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a primary member maypermit a supplementary member to access and review, through the use of asuitable communications network (such as the Internet for example), thetotal number of points in any geographic area in an aggregate consumeraccount. Alternatively, a primary member may permit a supplementarymember to access and review only the number of points earned by thatparticular supplementary member in a specific geographic area. As withprimary members, points earned by supplementary members are accumulatedacross the multiple retailers and/or manufacturers in a specificgeographic area participating in the system. Thus, points earned by asupplementary member based upon transactions with different retailersand/or manufacturers in a specific geographic area are combined,resulting in a rapid accrual of points.

In one embodiment, supplementary members may redeem accumulated rewardpoints through the above-described catalog as well as the customizedonline catalog. Alternatively, supplementary members may redeem rewardpoints at one or more sub-catalogs for a specific geographic area thatmay target a particular type of supplementary member in a specificgeographic area. The type of supplementary member targeted by asub-catalog may be defined by any suitable criteria, such as thespecific geographic area of the member or where the points were earned,capacity for lesser or greater point accumulation, consumer marketsegment, demographics information, products related to or similar topreviously purchased products, profile information, and the like.Examples of the types of supplementary members may include youngerhousehold members, such as children or teenagers for example; particularclasses or categories of employees, such as staff members or seniorexecutives; members of a charitable organization, such as volunteers orofficers of the Board of Directors; and the like. In one embodiment, asub-catalog may offer items having a lower monetary value in a specificgeographic area (as reflected in the redemption points value of theoffered items) than items offered in the catalog. In another embodiment,each supplementary member's accumulated reward points total in aspecific geographic area is matched, according to a volume of totalpoints, with a corresponding sub-catalog in a specific geographic area,and a supplementary member who seeks to redeem accumulated reward pointsis automatically directed to that particular sub-catalog in response toa request for redemption. In one embodiment, any reward pointsredemption transactions by a supplementary member in a specificgeographic area results in a corresponding reduction in the aggregateaccumulated reward points total of the aggregate consumer account in aspecific geographic area as well as a reduction of the particularsupplementary member's reward points total in a specific geographicarea.

In accordance with the present invention, FIG. 1 is a diagramillustrating an exemplary embodiment of an incentive or loyalty system100. System 100 comprises a central rewards mechanism 102; a pluralityof retailer/merchant systems 104; and at least one manufacturer 106. Oneskilled in the art will appreciate that system 100 may comprise anynumber of retailer systems 104 and any number of manufacturers 106.

The central rewards mechanism 102 manages the incentive or loyaltyprogram of system 100. In an exemplary embodiment, central rewardsmechanism 102 receives, processes, and stores manufacturer data, such asinformation regarding products, services, geographic area informationand UPC data, transmitted by manufacturers 106 who have enrolled in thesystem 100. Manufacturers 106 may transmit data to central rewardsmechanism 102 in any form and by any means known in the art, includingany of the communications means described herein. The manufacturer datais stored by the central rewards mechanism 102 in database 103. Asdescribed in further detail below, database 103 may be any type ofdatabase, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or thelike. Common database products that may be used to implement database103 include DB2 by IBM (White Plains, N.Y.), any of the databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access by Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), or any otherdatabase product. Database 103 may be organized in any suitable manner,including as data tables or lookup tables.

The central rewards mechanism 102 may receive and process, geographicarea information, consumer ID or supplementary member ID information andpurchase data from any of the retailer systems 104. The central rewardsmechanism 102 may also associate a particular consumer ID orsupplementary member ID with the geographic area information, purchasedata and a corresponding manufacturer item identifier. In oneembodiment, the central rewards mechanism 102 performs an analysisinvolving one or more of the following: geographic area information, aconsumer ID, a supplementary member ID, purchase data, a points ratio, aconsumer profile, a supplementary member profile, a retailer ID, and amanufacturer ID. The analysis may be dependent upon an association ofthe consumer ID or supplementary member ID, the purchase data, and themanufacturer item identifier. The analysis may further comprise, forexample, geographic area information analysis using a calculation ofreward points and/or other analyses for purposes of market segmentationin a geographic area, determining consumer spending behavior in ageographic area, correlating spending behavior in a geographic area andconsumer demographics in a geographic area, and/or the like, asdescribed in greater detail above.

In one exemplary embodiment, the central rewards mechanism 102 storesand informs a consumer of the reward points that have been earned by aparticular transaction in a geographic area as well as accumulated overtime in various geographic areas. The number of reward points calculatedand awarded by the central rewards mechanism 102 for a particularpurchase may depend upon a geographic area, a formula, ratio,percentage, consumer level, point level, retailer level, manufacturerlevel, and reward level and/or a predetermined rewards ratio. Any of the“levels” may be determined by, for example, new membership, long termmembership, amount of expenditures over a time period, escalating levelsor any other factor desired by the system. The rewards ratio may bedetermined by the retailer, the system administrator, the manufacturerof the purchased item, and/or any other suitable third-party. Forexample, if a participating consumer buys a product from a retailer for$100 and if the retailer rewards ratio is one reward point for eachdollar of the purchase price (i.e., one-for-one), once the consumer'sconsumer ID or supplementary member ID is identified by the system, theconsumer is credited with a suitable number of reward points from theretailer, which, in this case, would be 100 points. However, if themanufacturer also chooses to issue reward points for the item purchased,the manufacturer may select a points ratio that is different from theretailer's selected ratio. In the illustrated example, if themanufacturer's selected points ratio is two-for-one, then the consumerwill be awarded an additional 200 points from the manufacturer for thissingle $100 purchase. Additionally, if the product is purchased in acertain geographic area, the points ratio may be different. For example,if the product is purchased in Ohio, the consumer is awarded athree-to-one ratio, but if the product is purchased in Arizona, theconsumer may only receive a two-to-one ratio. In this manner, the systemof the invention may provide “earn accelerators” through which consumersmay accumulate reward points at a comparatively rapid rate. In otherwords, a single purchase in a geographic area may generate reward pointsfor a consumer from any or all of a retailer, a manufacturer, and/or athird-party provider, and those reward points may be used as rewardscurrency by the consumer throughout the network established by thesystem of the invention.

In an exemplary embodiment, retailer system 104 comprises a retailerterminal 108 and a retailer processor 110 in communication with database111. Retailer terminal 108 comprises any input device capable ofidentifying a consumer ID or a supplementary member ID. Exemplarydevices for identifying a consumer ID or supplementary member ID mayinclude: a conventional card reader which recognizes a magnetic stripeor bar code associated with a consumer ID or supplementary member ID; abiometric device; a radio frequency device; a smart card reader whichrecognizes information stored on a microchip integrated with a consumerID or supplementary member ID; any device capable of receiving oruploading consumer ID or supplementary member ID data transmittedelectronically, magnetically, optically; and/or the like. In oneembodiment, retailer terminal 108 and retailer processor 110 areco-located at a retail store. In another embodiment, retail terminal 108and retailer processor 110 are remote from each other.

In one aspect of the invention, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the retailersystem 104 may facilitate instant enrollment in the system of theinvention by a consumer at the point of sale. In an exemplaryembodiment, retailer terminal 108 comprises an input device, such as anyof the devices noted above for example, that is capable of identifying aretailer loyalty identifier, which is described in detail above. In thisembodiment, when a consumer uses their retailer loyalty identifier at aretailer point-of-sale checkout (which may be either at a brick andmortar establishment or an online retailer Web site) (step 202), theconsumer is asked whether they wish to enroll in the system of theinvention (step 204). In an exemplary embodiment, the retailer terminal108 and/or the input device which interacts with the retailer loyaltyidentifier presents an enrollment query (e.g., “Would you like to enrollin a networked loyalty program?”) and prompts the consumer (or aretailer employee who may be handling the checkout transaction) toindicate a response by, for example, selecting either “Yes or No” inresponse to the enrollment query. In one embodiment, the consumer usesthe retailer loyalty identifier to interact with the input device whilethe consumer's purchases are being checked-out by the retailer so thatpull-through rates are minimally impacted. For example, the consumer mayswipe or scan the retailer loyalty identifier while the retailer isperforming the checkout process, and therefore the consumer may respondto the enrollment query substantially without the aid of the retaileremployee who is performing the checkout.

If the consumer does not wish to participate in the loyalty program ofthe invention, the consumer selects “No” in response to the enrollmentquery, the negative response is communicated to the retailer system 104,the retailer regional processor 114, and/or the central rewardsmechanism 102 (step 206), and the checkout process proceeds as usual(step 208).

Alternatively, if the consumer wishes to participate in the loyaltyprogram of the invention, the consumer selects “Yes” in response to theenrollment query, and the affirmative response is communicated to theretailer system 104, the retailer regional processor 114, and/or thecentral rewards mechanism 102 (step 210). In this embodiment, thecheckout also proceeds as usual (step 212). However, retailer enrollmentdata pertaining to the consumer is communicated from the retailer system104 (or the retailer regional processor 114, as described herein withreference to FIG. 4) to the central rewards mechanism 102 (step 214).For example, retailer enrollment data, such as, for example, theconsumer's name, address, geographic area information, etc., which theretailer has previously gathered from the consumer and has processed andstored for the purpose of enabling the consumer to participate in theretailer's independent loyalty program, is sent from the retailer system104 (or the retailer regional processor 114) to the central rewardsmechanism 102.

At this point, the consumer may be able to establish (or it may beestablished by the retailer, the system or other participant) a maingeographic area indicating the “primary” area in which the consumerwishes to establish for receiving or spending geographic-based rewards.The consumer may also be able to select a secondary area for receivingor spending geographic-based rewards. For example, if the consumerspends most of the year in Chicago, but the winters in Florida, theconsumer may select Chicago as a primary area and Florida as a secondaryarea. Furthermore, the system may offer options to select regions ofparticipation (similar to wireless phone service areas). The system mayautomatically establish the geographic area of the participant based onthe use of, for example, cellular phone caller location relative tocellular towers or a global positioning system which may communicate thelocation (previous or planned locations) of the participant to thesystem. For example, the GPS may communicate that the consumer recentlytraveled from Maine to New York, so the system may register the consumerto receive loyalty points in any city or state along the route.

Once the central rewards mechanism 102 receives the enrollment data, thecentral rewards mechanism 102 then automatically processes thatenrollment data as an enrollment application for the consumer toparticipate in the networked loyalty program of the invention (step216). The enrollment data may be communicated from the retailer system104 (or the retailer regional processor 114) to the central rewardsmechanism 102 by any known routine or format, such as, for example batchprocessing or in real time. The central rewards mechanism then opens aconsumer account, issues a consumer ID, and sends this and otherrelevant information about the loyalty program (e.g., generalinformation about the loyalty program and the manner in which itoperates, information regarding the possibility of opening an aggregateaccount and obtaining supplementary member IDs, terms and conditions ofparticipation in the loyalty program, geographic-based earn and redeeminformation, etc.) to the consumer (step 218). At the point-of-sale,however, a temporary consumer account may be opened and/or a temporaryconsumer ID is issued to allow the consumer to participate in theloyalty program while the consumer is waiting to receive the consumerID, account information (including (step 220). This temporary consumeraccount is eventually reconciled with the consumer account once it hasbeen opened to credit the consumer with any rewards points or otherbenefits of participation in the loyalty program that may have accruedwhile the consumer was awaiting activation of the consumer account andreceipt of the consumer ID.

This “instant”, one-step enrollment functionality simplifies enrollmentin the system of the invention and saves consumers time by utilizingdata that the retailer already has in its possession, thereby reducingthe need for a consumer's active participation in a separate enrollmentprocess. Such a simplified enrollment process may lead to higherenrollment completion and participant acquisition rates as well as lowerparticipant acquisition costs. Moreover, retailers may enjoy thebenefits of consumer enrollment in the system of the invention withouteither requiring the dedication of substantial amounts of retailer spacefor enrollment purposes or decreasing checkout pullthrough rates.

In an exemplary embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 3, retailer terminal108 comprises a retailer POS terminal 112, such as a cash register forexample. When a consumer ID or supplementary member ID is used at thetime an item is purchased, purchase data, including a SKU number, isinput, sensed, or otherwise recognized by terminal 108, and then thepurchase data is processed and stored by retailer processor 110.Retailer processor 110 comprises or is in communication with a suitabledatabase 111 or other storage device for maintaining and storingpurchase data and any other suitable retailer information. Database 111may be any type of database, such as any of the database productsdescribed herein for example. Database 111 may be organized in anysuitable manner, including as data tables or lookup tables. Purchasedata that is stored in database 111 is available to the retailer's localback office system (not shown) for inventory, accounting, tax, dataanalysis, and other purposes. The captured purchase data may include theitem purchased, the item's unit price, the number of items purchased,the date, the store location, an employee ID, geographic areainformation and any other information related to the purchase. In anexemplary embodiment, retailer processor 110 may also receive, process,and store manufacturer data, such as information regarding productsand/or services, manufacturer geographic area information and UPC data,from manufacturers 106 who have enrolled in the system 100. Themanufacturer data may be stored in any suitable form, including datatables or lookup tables.

In accordance with the exemplary embodiments illustrated in FIG. 4,purchase data may also be transmitted to, and then stored and processedby, a retailer regional processor 114 (or, alternatively, a retailernational processor (not shown) in communication with database 115 forthe purpose of further back office and cumulative data analysis.Database 115 may be any type of database, such as any of the databaseproducts described in greater detail above for example. Database 115 maybe organized in any suitable manner, including as data tables or lookuptables. In an exemplary embodiment, retailer processor 110 optionallymay be integrated with retailer regional processor 114 (illustrated bythe phantom lines encompassing Retailer Processor 1 and retailerregional processor 114 within the system of Retailer/Merchant #2),thereby forming a single device. In another embodiment, retailerprocessor 110 and retailer regional processor 114 are separate deviceswhich may be either co-located with each other or remotely located fromone another. For example, in one embodiment, retailer processor 110 andregional processor 114 are co-located at a particular retail store. Inanother embodiment, retailer processor 110 is located at a particularretail store and retailer regional processor 114 is remotely located ata regional office.

Regardless of the location of retailer regional processor 114, retailerregional processor 114 receives and processes similar information fromeach of the retailer processors 110 associated with each of the retailstores owned by the same retailer. Whether the system 100 comprises aretailer regional processor 114 or a retailer national processor may bea function of the number of stores maintained by a particular retailer.That is, a larger retailer who has numerous stores throughout thecountry, for example, may choose to have a plurality of regionalprocessors, while a smaller retailer with a few stores scattered acrossthe country may be better served by a single, national processor. Inexemplary embodiments, the retailer regional processors 114 and/ornational processors communicate with a suitable database 115 or otherstorage device which is configured to store and maintain purchase dataand any other suitable retailer information. In another exemplaryembodiment, retailer regional processor 114 may receive, process, andstore manufacturer data, such as information regarding products and/orservices, manufacturer geographic area information and UPC data, frommanufacturers 106 who have enrolled in the system 100. The manufacturerdata may be stored in any suitable form, including data tables or lookuptables.

With momentary reference to FIG. 3, retailer terminal 108 may comprise arewards terminal 116 through which a consumer may be updated with regardto various aspects of the system. For example, rewards terminal 116 mayinform a consumer of the number of reward points in a certain geographicarea that they have accumulated from all system participants and thetypes of awards that may be obtained using those reward points in aspecific geographic area information. Moreover, rewards terminal 116 maysuggest to the consumer various awards in certain geographic areas forwhich the consumer is eligible based upon the reward points generated bythe consumer's network-wide purchases in certain geographic areas. Inthis context, network-wide purchases include any purchases of itemscorresponding to retailers and/or manufacturers participating in thesystem 100 in one or more geographic areas.

In an exemplary embodiment, rewards terminal 116 operates in real-time.In this context, “real-time” means that reward points are immediately,or nearly immediately, updated at the time purchases are made and aretherefore immediately redeemable by the consumer at a point of sale in ageographic area. Thus, for example, a consumer may be informed byrewards terminal 116 at the point of sale that the item being purchasedby the consumer may be purchased using the consumer's accumulated rewardpoints in a geographic area, including points accumulated on a networklevel in the geographic area. Points accumulated on a network levelenable consumers to accumulate points more rapidly than would bepossible if only a single retailer or group of retailers were issuingthe points in the same geographic area. In one embodiment, rewardsterminal 116 may update a consumer's reward points in real-time and, inresponse to the consumer's particular points total, issue a coupon, agift certificate, and/or additional bonus points to the consumer for usein a particular geographic area.

In another exemplary embodiment, the system may operate in batch mode,wherein points totals are calculated, stored, and periodically updatedfor access by the retailer terminal 108, including POS terminal 112and/or rewards terminal 116. Thus, in this embodiment, the consumer maybe notified of available points sometime after a purchase, or asuggestive sale in a geographic area may take place after a purchase.The total point count or suggestive sale may take into account pointsgenerated and accumulated as the result of network-wide purchases in ageographic area.

In various alternate embodiments of the invention, retailer terminal 108may include a rewards terminal 116 but not a POS terminal 112; a POSterminal 112 but not a rewards terminal 116; or a POS terminal 112 incommunication with a rewards terminal 116. In alternate embodiments,where terminal 108 includes a POS terminal 112 and a rewards terminal116, the two terminals 112 and 116 may be variously implemented asseparate terminals, integrated terminals, or software within a device.In another embodiment, where terminal 108 comprises a rewards terminal116 but not a POS terminal 112, terminal 108 may be a kiosk terminallocated within a retail store or some other remote terminal which iscapable of recognizing a consumer ID or supplementary member ID andcommunicating with the system 100. A consumer may use independentrewards terminal 116 to do, for example, any of the following: viewaccumulated reward points totals in a geographic area; view potentialawards which the consumer may obtain in a geographic area in exchangefor various numbers of points; select an award; redeem reward points fora selected award; request and/or receive a reward points advisorystatement; and/or view a directory of participating retailers,manufacturers, and third-party providers in a geographic area.

In another exemplary embodiment, system 100 further comprises a consumerterminal 118. Consumer terminal 118 is any remote terminal through whicha consumer may access other aspects of the system 100. Consumer terminal118 may comprise any of the input devices, computing units, or computingsystems described herein. Further, consumer terminal 118 communicateswith the system 100 through any of the communications networks describedherein. Consumer terminal 118 may also include, for example, cellularphone caller location relative to cellular towers or a globalpositioning system to automatically determine and communicate historicalor current location information to the system. In one embodiment,consumer terminal 118 permits a consumer to engage multiple facets ofthe system 100 in an interactive online communications environment. Theinteractive online environment made available through consumer terminal118 is an extension of the network-level incentive award program and isimplemented in conjunction with other aspects of the system 100. In thiscontext, a consumer may use consumer terminal 118 for a variety ofpurposes. In one embodiment, consumer terminal 118 may be used tocommunicate with and receive information from the central rewardsmechanism 102. For example, a consumer may use consumer terminal 118 todo any of the following: communicate geographic area information; enrollin the system; enroll supplementary members in the system; identifyparticular individuals who are authorized to enroll as supplementarymembers in association with a primary member's aggregate consumeraccount; receive statements or reports regarding accumulated rewardpoints totals; receive statements or reports regarding a supplementarymember's accumulated reward points totals; receive bonus details; viewpotential awards which the consumer may obtain in exchange for variousnumbers of points in a geographic area; select an award in a geographicarea; receive redemption information in a geographic area; view pointsadjustments; redeem reward points for a selected award in a geographicarea; request and/or receive a reward points advisory statement; receiveinformation regarding where and how points were earned and/or how pointswere redeemed in the respective geographic areas; receive informationregarding expiration dates for points earned in a geographic area;receive information relating to any applicable fees; receive informationregarding marketing promotions in a geographic area; and/or view adirectory of participating retailers, manufacturers, and/or third-partyproviders in a geographic area.

In one embodiment, a consumer may use consumer terminal 118 to customizethe online catalog for selective presentation to the consumer ofparticularly relevant rewards, rather than the entire rewards catalog.For example, a consumer may indicate an indicia of relevance (such asany aspect of the consumer's geographic area, demographics or profile,products related to or similar to previously purchased products, theconsumer's total accumulated reward points, and the like), and thesystem then presents to the consumer only those catalog items that arerelevant to the consumer. The consumer may select the indicia ofrelevance by any means known and practiced in the art, such as by usinga pointer in connection with a drop-down menu, a plurality of icons, ora plurality of “buttons” for example. This embodiment enables simplifiednavigation of the rewards catalog by consumers, thereby also enablingmore expedient reward points redemption.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, customized bonusofferings may be communicated to the consumer through an onlinecustomized rewards catalog (as described herein), a customer servicerepresentative, email, or offline communications. In one embodiment, theconsumer may use the consumer terminal 118 to receive bonus offeringsthat are customized according to any of the following consumerinformation: geographic area, demographics information, purchasingbehavior, reward points earning behavior, and reward points redemptionbehavior.

In another embodiment, consumer terminal 118 may be used to interactwith and/or make purchases and generate reward points from participatingonline retailers, as illustrated by the various phantom lines in FIG. 1.The online retailer may then communicate with the central rewardsmechanism 102 to transmit and process a consumer ID or supplementarymember ID, purchase data, etc., as described herein with reference toretailer 104 of FIG. 1. Information communicated between the onlineconsumer, the online retailer, and the online central rewards mechanismmay include, for example, geographic area information, product orservice information, prices, availability of the product or service,shipping information, reward points information, available awards,information regarding points ratios and points redemption, and/or thelike. In one embodiment, consumer terminal 118 operates in real-time, asdescribed herein with respect to rewards terminal 116. In anotherembodiment, the consumer terminal 118 may operate in batch mode, asdescribed herein. In still a further embodiment, consumer terminal 118operates in a manner which includes aspects of both real-timefunctionality and batch mode functionality.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the system 100 maycomprise a rewards server 120 in communication with a database 121, asillustrated in FIG. 3. Database 121 may be any type of database, such asany of the database products described herein for example. Database 121may be organized in any suitable manner, including as data tables orlookup tables. In an exemplary embodiment, rewards server 120 may be anyhardware and/or software that is configured to communicate with thecentral rewards mechanism 102 and either the retailer processor 110 orthe retailer regional processor 114. In alternate exemplary embodiments,rewards server 120 may be integrated with retailer system 104; rewardsserver 120 may be integrated with central rewards mechanism 102; orrewards server 120 may be separate from both retailer system 104 andcentral rewards mechanism 102. In a further embodiment, the rewardsserver 120 may communicate with both a retailer national processor (notshown) and the central rewards mechanism 102.

In an exemplary embodiment, rewards server 120 receives, processes, andstores geographic area information, manufacturer data and retailer data.Manufacturer data may include descriptions of products and/or servicesand UPC data transmitted from manufacturers 106 who have enrolled in thesystem 100. The manufacturer data may be stored in any suitable form,including data tables or lookup tables. Retailer data may includedescriptions of products and/or services and SKU data transmitted fromretailers 104 who have enrolled in the system 100. The retailer data maybe stored in any suitable form, including data tables or lookup tables.

In an exemplary embodiment, the rewards server 120 performs a pluralityof functions that might otherwise be performed by the central rewardsmechanism 102. For example, since rewards calculations requiresignificant processing and memory resources, performance of calculationsprocessing by the rewards server 120 at the regional level lessens theprocessing load on the central rewards mechanism 102, thereby increasingthe efficiency of the central rewards mechanism 102. In an exemplaryembodiment, each retailer's region, which comprises a plurality of thatretailer's stores or outlets, accesses a rewards server 120 which actsas an intermediary between the retailer regional processor 114 and thecentral rewards mechanism 102. This configuration relieves theprocessing, power, memory, and other requirements of the central rewardsmechanism 102. Moreover, each retailer is but one of many retailers thatmay participate in the network level rewards structure. Accordingly, aplurality of rewards servers 120 may be in communication with thecentral rewards mechanism 102 as well as each of the participatingretailer regional processors 114, further alleviating the processingburden and freeing up the resources of the central rewards mechanism102.

Implementations which include at least one independent rewards server120 are also advantageous because cost-effective communications linksmay be used to facilitate communications with the central rewardsmechanism 102. Performance by the rewards server 120 of many of the“intelligence functions” of the system 100 permits transmission of onlyparticular forms of purchaser information to the central rewardsmechanism 102. In an exemplary embodiment, data sent from the rewardsserver 120 to the central rewards mechanism 102 may include thegeographic area information, consumer ID or supplementary member ID andthe total number of reward points earned by a consumer in a particulartransaction. In another exemplary embodiment, data transmitted by therewards server 120 to the central rewards mechanism 102 may also includeany pre-selected aspect of the consumer profile or supplementary memberprofile, any pre-selected aspect of the purchase data, and/or any otherpre-selected data associated with a consumer, a retailer, amanufacturer, and/or a third-party provider in a geographic area.Pre-selection of the types of data transmitted by the rewards server 120to the central rewards mechanism 102 may be conducted by the systemadministrator, a retailer, a manufacturer, and/or a third-partyprovider. Thus, data which may be useful for purposes of data analysisbut unrelated to the rewards feature, such as the characteristics of theparticular item purchased for example, may not need to be transmitted tothe central rewards mechanism 102.

Exemplary functions performed by the rewards server 120 may include theassociation of geographic area information, UPC and SKU data;manipulation of the rewards criteria applicable in particular geographicareas, which may further depend upon the retailer, manufacturer, and/orthird-party provider involved in a specific transaction with a consumer;calculation of rewards benefits earned by the consumer in a geographicarea; filtration functions for determining which data is transmittedfrom the rewards server 120 to the central rewards mechanism 102; and/orvarious types of data analyses, as described herein. In an exemplaryembodiment, the retailer system 104 houses, maintains, and updates thehardware and/or software of the rewards server 120. In anotherembodiment, rewards server 120 may be housed, maintained, and updated bythe system administrator.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, thesystem 100 permits an open payment system. Since the invention generallyprovides that consumer participation in the system is based upon aconsumer ID or supplementary member ID, a purchaser may use any ofmultiple payment vehicles (such as cash, check, charge card, creditcard, debit card, MasterCard®, Visa®, and/or the American Express® Cardfor example) to make purchases at the various retailers and stillparticipate in the system. Thus, in one embodiment, geographic areainformation, the consumer ID or supplementary member ID is independentof any particular payment vehicle, such as a credit card for example.

However, alternate embodiments of the invention may be implemented whichassociate a geographic area, consumer ID or supplementary member ID witha particular payment vehicle, such as a consumer's credit card account,charge card account, debit card account, and/or bank account forexample. In this embodiment, the retailer conducting the transactionneed only participate in the system to the extent that the retailerprovides its geographic area or SKU data to the system 100, such as tothe rewards server 120. In other words, when a geographic area, consumerID or supplementary member ID is associated with an instrument (e.g., acredit card) from a third-party provider, the retailer need not providea rewards terminal or other terminal capable of processing the consumerID or supplementary member ID, since the third-party provider mayprocess the consumer ID or supplementary member ID as part of thepayment transaction. Thus, in this embodiment, rewards benefits may beearned by the consumer on a network-wide level in a geographic areawithout the retailer's direct participation in the rewards feature(notwithstanding the retailer's participation in transmitting SKU datato the system). Moreover, it will be appreciated that a singlegeographic area, consumer ID or supplementary member ID may beassociated with multiple third-party payment vehicles, thereby allowinga consumer to generate reward points regardless of the particularpayment vehicle selected for a particular purchase.

With reference to FIG. 5, an exemplary central rewards mechanism 502includes a central processor 504 in communication with other elements ofthe rewards mechanism 502 through a system interface or bus 506. Asuitable display device/input device 508, such as a keyboard or pointingdevice in combination with a monitor, may be provided for receiving datafrom and outputting data to a user of the system. A memory 510associated with the rewards mechanism 502 includes various softwaremodules, such as an enrollment module 512 and an authentication module514 for example. The memory 510 preferably further includes an operatingsystem 516 which enables execution by processor 504 of the varioussoftware applications residing at enrollment module 512 andauthentication module 514. Operating system 516 may be any suitableoperating system, as described herein. In one embodiment, a networkinterface 518 is provided for suitably interfacing with other elementsof the incentive awards system, such as the elements described hereinwith reference to FIGS. 1, 3, and 4.

Lastly, a storage device 520, such as a hard disk drive for example,preferably contains files or records which are accessed by the varioussoftware modules, such as enrollment module 512 and authenticationmodule 514. In particular, consumer data 522 comprises informationreceived from a consumer upon registration with the rewards mechanism502, including any information corresponding to geographic area orsupplementary members that may be affiliated with a primary member'saggregate consumer account. Consumer rewards 524 comprises datacorresponding to each consumer's rewards account, including datacorresponding to any aggregate consumer account and any supplementarymembers that may be affiliated with a primary member and/or an aggregateconsumer account. Consumer rewards 524 may include cumulative rewardpoints totals in a geographic area as well as historical totals andrewards account activity over time in a geographic area. In oneembodiment, consumer rewards 524 includes cumulative reward pointstotals, historical totals, and rewards account activity forsupplementary members affiliated with an aggregate consumer account.Retailer records 526 comprises information received from the variousparticipating retailers in a geographic area. Manufacturer records 528comprises information received from the various participatingmanufacturers in a geographic area. One skilled in the art willappreciate that the storage device 520 and, therefore, geographic areainformation, consumer data 522, consumer rewards 524, retailer records526, and manufacturer records 528 may be co-located with the rewardsmechanism 502 or may be remotely located with respect to the rewardsmechanism 502. If the storage device 520 is remotely located withrespect to the rewards mechanism 502, communication between storagedevice 520 and rewards mechanism 502 may be accomplished by any suitablecommunication link but is, in one embodiment, accomplished through aprivate intranet or extranet.

Enrollment module 512 receives information from consumers, retailers,and/or manufacturers who wish to participate in the system. Enrollmentmodule 512 accesses and stores information in storage device 520. In oneembodiment, enrollment module 512 receives, stores, and accesses datacorresponding to geographic area, primary members and their affiliatedsupplementary members. In another embodiment, enrollment module 512processes enrollment data received from a retailer system (e.g.,retailer system 104, retailer regional processor 114, or a nationalretailer processor) to facilitate instant enrollment of a consumer at apoint of sale, as described herein with reference to FIG. 2. Processingof enrollment data by enrollment module 512 may include, for example,associating geographic area information, opening a consumer account,issuing a consumer ID, and/or reconciling data in a temporary consumeraccount with a newly opened consumer account.

Authentication and/or validation of the identity and status ofparticipants, including any of the other system components, may beperformed by the authentication module 514, which may have access to therecords residing in storage device 520. In one embodiment,authentication module 514 authenticates and/or validates the geographicarea, identity, status, and/or affiliation of supplementary membersparticipating in the system. The validation may occur by cross-checkinggeographic area information such as, for example, zip code with phonenumber or zip code with street address.

With reference to FIG. 6, an exemplary rewards server 602 includes acentral processor 604 in communication with other elements of therewards server 602 through a system interface or bus 606. A suitabledisplay device/input device 608, such as a keyboard or pointing devicein combination with a monitor, may be provided for receiving data fromand outputting data to a user of the system. A memory 610, which isassociated with the rewards server 602, includes a variety of softwaremodules, such as an association module 612, a rewards calculation module614, a data analysis module 616, and a filtering module 618 for example.The memory 610 preferably further includes an operating system 620 whichenables execution by central processor 604 of the various softwareapplications residing at the various modules 612, 614, 616, and 618.Operating system 620 may be any suitable operating system, as describedherein. In one embodiment, a network interface 622 is provided forsuitably interfacing with other elements of the incentive awards system,such as the elements described herein with reference to FIGS. 1, 3, and4.

Storage device 624, such as a database as described herein for example,includes files or records which are accessed by the various softwaremodules 612, 614, 616, and 618. In particular, manufacturer data 626comprises information received from a manufacturer, such as geographicarea information, descriptions or other information regarding themanufacturer's products and/or services as well as UPC data for example.Retailer data 628 comprises information received from a retailer, suchas geographic area information, descriptions or other informationregarding the retailer's products and/or services as well as SKU datafor example. Consumer data 630 comprises information pertaining to aconsumer, including a geographic area information, consumer ID orsupplementary member ID, purchase data, a consumer profile orsupplementary member profile, and/or the like. One skilled in the artwill appreciate that the storage device 624 and, therefore, manufacturerdata 626, retailer data 628, and consumer data 630 may be co-locatedwith the rewards server 602 or may be remotely located with respect tothe rewards server 602. If the storage device 624 is remotely locatedwith respect to the rewards server 602, communication between storagedevice 624 and rewards server 602 may be accomplished by any suitablecommunication link but is preferably accomplished through a privateintranet or extranet.

Referring next to FIGS. 7 and 8, the process flows depicted in thesefigures are merely exemplary embodiments of the invention and are notintended to limit the scope of the invention as described herein. Itwill be appreciated that the following description makes appropriatereference not only to the steps depicted in FIGS. 7 and 8 but also tothe various system components as described herein with reference toFIGS. 1, 3, and 4.

FIG. 7 is flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for capturing andprocessing geographic area information and POS SKU data in accordancewith the present invention. The association or matching of geographicarea information, UPC and SKU data begins with POS data capture (step702). When a consumer presents a consumer ID or supplementary member IDto a retailer 104 at the time of purchasing an item from the retailer104, the consumer ID or supplementary member ID is processed by arewards terminal 116 that recognizes the consumer ID or supplementarymember ID, determines appropriate geographic area information andidentifies the consumer as a participant in the system 100. Purchasedata is captured by the retailer POS terminal 112. Purchase data mayinclude any of the data types noted above. For example, purchase datamay include any of the following: a SKU number; a unit price; a totaltransaction price; the payment vehicle(s) used; a store ID whichidentifies the particular store location in a geographic area if aretailer operates more than one store; a department ID, if the store hasmultiple departments; the date of the transaction; the time of thetransaction; the employee ID of the store clerk who facilitates thetransaction; a POS terminal ID to identify the particular terminalconducting the transaction; any retailer-specific incentive program ID;and/or the like. The retailer POS terminal 112 creates a transactionfile comprising the geographic area information, consumer data(including a consumer ID or supplementary member ID) and purchase data(including a SKU number associated with each item purchased), and thetransaction file is then stored by the retailer processor 110 indatabase 111 (step 704).

The various transaction files may be consolidated by the retailerprocessor 110 and then forwarded to the retailer regional processor 114(step 706) for further back-office and cumulative data analysisperformed by retailer 104.

In an exemplary embodiment, the transaction file is transmitted byeither of the retailer processor 110 or the retailer regional processor114 to the rewards server 120 (step 708). The geographic areainformation and SKU information for each item included in thetransaction file is then matched to or associated with corresponding UPCinformation which identifies the related manufacturer 106. An exemplaryassociation process is illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 8.Association of geographic area information, SKU and UPC data may beaccomplished through any data association technique known and practicedin the art. For example, the association may be accomplished eithermanually or automatically. Automatic association techniques may include,for example, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL,and/or the like.

In one embodiment, the system is thereby enabled to track the purchasingbehaviors of supplementary members in certain geographic areas as wellas primary members.

In an exemplary embodiment, the rewards server 120 utilizes theassociation information to calculate the reward points in a geographicarea generated by a consumer's purchase. For example, an appropriateseries of pointers leading from geographic area information to a SKU toa UPC to a manufacturer ID may ultimately direct the rewards server 120to employ a 2-for-1 manufacturer rewards ratio to award a consumer twiceas many points as the dollar amount of the consumer's total transactionprice. In another exemplary embodiment, an appropriate series ofpointers may result in the calculation of reward points based uponmultiple rewards criteria, such as rewards criteria associated with themanufacturer of the item as well as rewards criteria associated with athird-party provider in a certain geographic area for example.

With momentary reference to FIG. 7, in one exemplary embodiment, thegeographic area information, consumer ID or supplementary member ID andthe earned rewards information are transmitted to the central rewardsmechanism 102 after the rewards server 120 has filtered out consumerdata associated with the consumer ID or supplementary member ID (step710). In another embodiment, the central rewards mechanism 102 may usethe captured and matched geographic area information and UPC informationto determine rewards and/or for data analysis.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, FIG. 9 is a diagramillustrating an exemplary profiling system 900. Profiling system 900 maybe used to generate and analyze purchaser profiles. In one embodiment,the purchaser profiles may be used to effectively market products andservices to consumers. For example, the profiling system 900 permits thecross-selling of goods and services in a manner that was previouslythought to be impractical, if not impossible. That is, the comprehensivenature of the data made available through profiling system 900 permitsnetwork-wide, product-level knowledge of a consumer's specificpurchasing patterns across retailers in certain geographic areas. Thisknowledge may be used to develop targeted marketing strategies which canenhance relationships between and among manufacturers, retailers, andconsumers.

For instance, if a consumer purchases both Product 1 (e.g., a digitalvideo disc) and Product 2 (e.g., a compact disc) in a geographic area ina given month, and if the consumer makes these purchases using aconsumer ID, then profiling system 900 maintains a record of both thesepurchases related to the geographic area, regardless of whether theproducts were purchased from different retailers. Appropriate analyticson the data stored by profiling system 900 may then be used to determinethat this consumer may be a candidate for purchasing similar or relatedproducts or services in a geographic area (e.g., a surround sound audiosystem in the case of the examples above). The heightened awarenessprovided by profiling system 900 of a consumer's particular situationpermits the use of targeted marketing efforts that present the consumerwith specialized offers or other promotions that are likely to elicitadditional purchases by that consumer. Not only does this benefitmanufacturers and retailers, but the consumer is benefited by being madeaware of promotional offers and/or discounts on products and servicesthat are in fact relevant to the consumer.

In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, profiling system 900comprises a central rewards mechanism 902, a retailer/merchant system904, a profiler 906, a profiler interface 922, and an end-user 924. Itwill be appreciated that the system 900 may comprise any number ofretailer systems 904 and any number of end-users 924. Moreover, it willbe appreciated that central rewards mechanism 902 (and/or any of itssub-components) and profiler 906 may be separate components or may beintegrated to form a single component. It will also be appreciated thatprofiler 906 and profiler interface 922 may be separate components ormay be integrated for form a single component.

The central rewards mechanism 902 is substantially similar to, and maycomprise any of the components of, central rewards mechanism 102 and/orcentral rewards mechanism 502, as described herein with reference toFIGS. 1, 3, 4, and 5. Moreover, central rewards mechanism 902 may beconfigured to include any of the functionality described herein withreference to central rewards mechanism 102 and/or central rewardsmechanism 502. In particular, central rewards mechanism 902 comprises anenrollment module 912, which is substantially similar to enrollmentmodule 512 of FIG. 5, and a storage device 920, which is substantiallysimilar to storage device 520 of FIG. 5. In one embodiment, enrollmentmodule 912 receives consumer enrollment data from consumers and thenprocesses and transmits the consumer enrollment data to storage device920 for storage and future retrieval.

In an exemplary embodiment, the retailer system 904 comprises a retailerterminal 908 and a retailer processor 910. The retailer processor 910may be in communication with a database 911. The retailer system 904 issubstantially similar to, and may comprise any of the components of,retailer system 104, as described herein with reference to FIGS. 1, 3,and 4. Moreover, retailer system 904 may be configured to include any ofthe functionality described herein with reference to retailer system104. Retailer terminal 908 is substantially similar to, and may compriseany of the components and/or functionality of, retailer terminal 108;retailer processor 910 is substantially similar to, and may comprise anyof the components and/or functionality of, retailer processor 110; anddatabase 911 is substantially similar to, and may comprise any of thecomponents and/or functionality of, database 111.

As described in detail above with reference to retailer terminal 108,the retailer terminal 908 records consumer purchases in a geographicarea, either online (such as at a merchant web site for example) oroffline (such as at a retailer store for example), and then transmitsthe purchase data to retailer processor 910. Retailer processor 910processes and suitably stores the purchase data. Retailer processor 910is in communication with a suitable database 911 or other storage devicefor maintaining and storing purchase data and/or any other suitableretailer information.

In one embodiment, profiler 906 comprises a data conditioner 914, a dataanalytics module 916, and a detail database 918. As illustrated in FIG.10, an exemplary profiler 906 further includes a processor 926 incommunication with other elements of profiler 906 through an interfaceor bus 928. A suitable display/input device 930, such as a keyboard orpointing device in combination with a monitor, may be provided forreceiving data from and outputting data to a user of profiler 906. Amemory 932 associated with profiler 906 includes a data conditioner 914and an analytics module 916. Memory 932 preferably further includes anoperating system 934 which enables execution by processor 926 of thesoftware applications residing at data conditioner 914 and analyticsmodule 916. Operating system 934 may be any suitable operating system,as described herein. The detail database 918 may be any type ofdatabase, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or thelike. Common database products that may be used to implement database918 include DB2 by IBM (White Plains, N.Y.), any of the databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.), anyof the database products available from Sybase, Inc. (Emeryville,Calif.), Microsoft Access by Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), orany other database product. In one embodiment, a network interface 936is provided for interfacing the profiler 906 with other elements of theprofiling system 900, described herein with reference to FIG. 9.

With reference once again to FIG. 9, profiling system 900 furtherincludes a profiler interface 922 and an end-user 924. Profilerinterface 922 may comprise any device or system that permits access todata that is maintained and/or generated by profiler 906. In oneembodiment, profiler interface 922 permits an end-user 924 to accessprofiler 906 and retrieve data maintained or generated by profiler 906.End-user 924 may include any person, entity, charitable organization,machine, software, hardware, and/or the like that may seek access todata that is maintained and/or generated by profiler 906. In oneembodiment, end-user 924 may be any of a retailer, a manufacturer, aconsumer, or a third-party provider. In another embodiment, the end-user924 may be the system administrator.

Communication between an end-user 924 and profiler interface 922 may beaccomplished through any suitable communication means, such as any ofthe means described in detail above, for example. In an exemplaryembodiment, profiler interface 922 is a web interface which comprises aweb server that enables an end-user 924 to communicate with profilerinterface 922 via a suitable communications link, such as the Internet,for example, to access data residing at profiler 906. In anotherembodiment, profiler interface 922 includes an authentication module(not shown) which authenticates and/or validates the identity and statusof end-users 924 who seek access to profiler 906. The authenticationmodule may have access to a suitable storage device, such as a databasefor example, which maintains records identifying authorized end-users924.

As will be described in greater detail herein, profiling system 900 mayoptionally include a rewards server 938 (illustrated in FIG. 9 byphantom lines which represent that it is optional). The rewards server938 is substantially similar to, and may comprise any of the componentsand/or functionality of, rewards server 120 and/or 602, as describedherein with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 6. If used, rewards server 938receives a transaction file (i.e., purchase data (including a retaileritem identifier, such as a SKU for example) resulting from a consumertransaction) from the retailer system 904 and standardizes thetransaction file by associating the retailer item identifier with acorresponding manufacturer item identifier (e.g., a UPC). By translatingor converting SKU data into corresponding UPC data, the goods and/orservices that are part of each consumer transaction are characterized ina uniform manner that facilitates data analysis, regardless of thenumber of participating retailers. It will be appreciated that, if used,the rewards server 938 may be a separate component from profiler 906 ormay be integrated with profiler 906.

In another embodiment of profiling system 900, profiler 906 mayoptionally comprise a warranty module 940 (illustrated in FIG. 9 byphantom lines which represent that it is optional). In this embodiment,the warranty module may be used to search detail database 918 forpurchase data relating to manufacturers' warranties in a geographicarea. In one embodiment, a consumer who has purchased a product that hasa manufacturer's warranty may be informed by profiler 906, via profilerinterface 922 and a suitable communications link (such as through emailover the Internet for example), of any available opportunities topurchase an extended warranty plan in a geographic area. In anotherembodiment, a consumer may be informed by profiler 906 of any availableopportunities to purchase an extended warranty plan for a product in ageographic area whose manufacturer's warranty is about to expire.

Referring next to FIGS. 11 and 12, the process flows depicted in thesefigures are exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not intendedto limit the scope of the invention as described herein. It will beappreciated that the following description makes appropriate referencenot only to the steps depicted in FIGS. 11 and 12 but also to thevarious system components as described herein with reference to FIGS. 9and 10.

FIG. 11 is flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for generating apurchaser profile for a consumer or a group of consumers. Generating apurchaser profile begins with enrolling a consumer in the system of theinvention (step 1102). As described herein, enrollment is accomplishedby central rewards mechanism 902. That is, enrollment module 912receives and processes the consumer enrollment data, facilitatesissuance of a consumer ID to the consumer, and transmits the consumerenrollment data to storage device 920. In this context, the term“consumer ID” shall be understood to include “supplementary member ID”.After a consumer is enrolled in the system, the consumer may use theconsumer ID during a transaction with a retailer system 904.

When a consumer uses a consumer ID, the consumer ID and geographic areainformation, together with the purchase data associated with theretailer transaction in a geographic area, is captured at thepoint-of-sale (step 1104). That is, when a consumer presents a consumerID to a retailer 904 at the time of purchasing an item from the retailer904, the consumer ID and geographic area information is processed by arewards terminal 908 that recognizes the consumer ID and identifies theconsumer as a participant in the system 900 in a geographic area.Purchase data is then captured by the retailer terminal 908. Purchasedata may include any of the data types noted herein. For example,purchase data may include any of the following: geographic areainformation, a SKU number; a unit price; a total transaction price; thepayment vehicle(s) used; a store ID which identifies the particularstore location if a retailer operates more than one store; a departmentID, if the store has multiple departments; the date of the transaction;the time of the transaction; the employee ID of the store clerk whofacilitates the transaction; a retailer terminal ID to identify theparticular terminal conducting the transaction; any retailer-specificincentive program ID; any product warranty that may apply, as well asthe terms of the warranty; and/or the like. The retailer terminal 908creates and processes a transaction file comprising consumer-identifyingdata (i.e., the consumer ID) and purchase data (including a SKU numberassociated with each item purchased) (step 1106). The transaction filemay then be stored by the retailer processor 910 in database 911.

Optionally, the transaction file may be transmitted by the retailersystem 904 to the rewards server 938 (step 1108). (Steps 1108 through1114 are illustrated in phantom lines in FIG. 11 to represent that thesesteps are optional.) In this embodiment, the transaction file isstandardized by matching or associating the SKU information for eachitem included in the transaction file with corresponding UPC informationwhich identifies the manufacturer of the item and/or a generaldescription of the goods or services (step 1110). Association of SKU andUPC data may be accomplished through any data association techniqueknown and practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, and/or the like. An exemplary method forassociating SKU and UPC data is described herein with reference to FIG.8. In this embodiment, after the rewards server 938 associates the SKUand UPC data, the rewards server 938 modifies or standardizes thattransaction file by including the UPC data (step 1112) and thentransmits the standardized transaction file to the profiler 906 (step1114). In one embodiment, the rewards server 938 transmits thestandardized transaction file to the data conditioner 914.

In an alternate embodiment, the transaction file is transmitted by theretailer system 904 to the profiler 906 (step 1116). In one embodiment,the transaction file is transmitted by retailer system 904 to the dataconditioner 914. In this embodiment, after data conditioner 914 hasreceived the transaction file, data conditioner 914 standardizes thetransaction file (step 1118). Since a given retailer will identify aproduct/service by an SKU that is relevant only to that retailer, it isuseful to identify and characterize products and services in a uniformmanner across retailers. Such standardization facilitates data analysisacross retailers, permits increased sophistication in the types ofanalyses that may be performed, and/or enhances the richness of theinformation derived from such analyses.

In one embodiment, data conditioner 914 standardizes the transactionfile by associating geographic area information, SKU and UPC data in amanner similar to that described herein with reference to rewards server938.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 12, the data conditioner914 standardizes the transaction file by deriving a standard identifierfrom a SKU lookup table which is stored in a suitable database, such asdetail database 918 for example. In an exemplary embodiment, the SKUlookup table is created when detail database 918 receives and storesretailer data, such as SKU and related product or service data, forexample, transmitted to the detail database 918 by retailer system 904(step 1202). In an exemplary implementation, detail database 918 storesretailer data in a separate retailer data table for each participatingretailer system 904. Each retailer data table may comprise a pluralityof fields, such as “geographic area information”, “SKU” and “productdescription”, for example, and a plurality of records, each recordcorresponding to an item offered by a participating retailer 904. Foreach record stored in the retailer data table, detail database 918 thengenerates, assigns, and stores as part of the record a standardidentifier (step 1204). The standard identifier uniquely identifies anitem stored in the data table and is linked to the SKU and/or geographicarea information that is also associated with that item (step 1206). Thestandard identifier may be any suitable identifier, such as a number, acode, an alphanumeric identifier, etc., that may be used to uniquelydesignate or identify an item in the SKU lookup table. In an exemplaryembodiment, the “geographic area information”, “SKU” and “standardidentifier” fields in the SKU data table may be linked by an appropriatepointer.

The SKU lookup table is then used by data conditioner 914 to derive astandard identifier that corresponds to the specific product or servicerepresented by the particular retailer's SKU number in the transactionfile. Thus, when the data conditioner 914 receives the transaction file,the data conditioner 914 searches the SKU lookup table for theappropriate SKU number. That is, when the data conditioner 914 searchesthe SKU lookup table and locates the particular SKU that has beencaptured and transmitted by the retailer system 904, the specificallyidentified SKU data field uses a pointer to direct the data conditioner914 to the standard identifier data field that corresponds to that SKUnumber (step 1208). After data conditioner 914 derives a standardidentifier for each item included in the transaction file, the standardidentifier is then linked to, or stored as a part of, the transactionfile (step 1210).

As mentioned previously, while the SKU is an identifier that is definedby a particular retailer in a geographic area and has little meaningoutside the retailer system 904, the standard identifier is used tocharacterize a particular product or service in a geographic area acrossmultiple retailers. For example, if SKU 1 is used by Retailer 1 toidentify Product A, and if SKU 2 is used by Retailer 2 to identifyProduct A, Product A is identified by a single Standard Identifier byprofiler 906, regardless of the retailer system 904 from which thetransaction file containing data on Product A originated. The SKU lookuptable may be maintained by the system administrator and updatedperiodically with information received from the retailer systems 904.

In another embodiment, the retailer system 904 standardizes thetransaction file prior to transmitting the transaction file to theprofiler 906. In one embodiment, retailer system 904 standardizes thetransaction file by associating geographic area information, SKU and UPCdata, as described herein with reference to rewards server 938. Inanother embodiment, retailer system 904 standardizes the transactionfile by using a SKU lookup table, as described herein with reference toFIG. 12. After standardizing the transaction file, the retailer system904 transmits the standardized transaction file to profiler 906. Whethertransmitted to reward server 938 or profiler 906, a transaction file,whether or not it has been standardized prior to transmission, may betransmitted from retailer system 904 either as part of a periodic batchprocess or in real time as each transaction occurs.

Referring once again to FIG. 11, after the transaction file has beenstandardized, either by rewards server 938 or data conditioner 914,detail database 918 receives the standardized transaction file andqueries whether the consumer associated with the transaction filealready has an established record in the detail database 918 (step1120). If the consumer associated with the transaction file already hasan established record in detail database 918, as determined by a searchof detail database 918 by data conditioner 914 for the consumer IDcontained in the transaction file, then data conditioner 914 writes thenewly obtained transaction file to the established record in detaildatabase 918 (step 1122), thereby updating the consumer's record toreflect the additional purchases. This updated record may then be usedby analytics module 916 to generate a purchaser profile, as described ingreater detail below (step 1130).

If the consumer associated with the transaction file does not have anestablished record in detail database 918, as determined by dataconditioner 914 based upon a search of detail database 918, then dataconditioner 914 creates a new record in detail database 918 for thestandardized transaction file (step 1124). The data conditioner 914 thenmerges consumer enrollment data stored by central rewards mechanism 902with the standardized transaction file. That is, for each standardizedtransaction file that is written to detail database 918 as a new record,data conditioner 914 requests and receives consumer enrollment data fromcentral rewards mechanism 902 (step 1126). The request identifies theconsumer ID associated with the transaction file and asks that consumerenrollment data associated with the consumer ID be transmitted from thecentral rewards mechanism 902 to data conditioner 914. The centralrewards mechanism 902 retrieves the appropriate consumer enrollment datafile from storage device 920 and then transmits the consumer enrollmentdata to data conditioner 914. Data conditioner 914 then merges theconsumer enrollment data with the standardized transaction filecontained in the newly created record in detail database 918 (step1128).

The standardized transaction file and the consumer enrollment data maybe merged by any suitable database merge function, such as by using a“key field” (as described herein) within each of the records stored instorage device 920 and detail database 918. In one embodiment, thestandardized transaction file and the consumer enrollment data aremerged using a key field which corresponds to a consumer ID data field.

Analytics module 916 generates purchaser profiles by accessing and usingthe data in detail database 918 (step 1130). As will be appreciated, anyknown methods for performing data analysis, analytics, econometrics,modeling, data mining, marketing analyses, etc., may make use of thecombined consumer enrollment data and purchase data stored in detaildatabase 918. Analytics module 916 may generate purchaser profiles inthe form of reports, summary data sheets, spread sheets, graphicaloutput, combinations of these, and/or the like. The purchaser profilesmay be stored by detail database 918, viewed on a display screen (e.g.,display device 930), printed, transmitted to an end-user 924, and/or thelike.

An end-user 924 can access profiler 906 through profiler interface 922.In one embodiment, an end-user 924 may be enabled to use profilerinterface 922 to accomplish one or more of the following which may befurther divided or grouped by geographic area information: (1) useanalytics module 916 to run analytics on any of (or selected parts of)the data stored in detail database 918; (2) use analytics module 916 torun analytics on summary data that is stored in detail database 918; (3)access detail database 918, download particular data to the end-user'ssystem, and run specific end-user analytics (i.e., analytics whichreside at end-user 924) to generate custom purchaser profiles based uponan end-user's particular requirements; and/or (4) access reports,summary data sheets, spread sheets, graphical output, combinations ofthese, and/or the like that are generated by analytics module 916 andstored by detail database 918.

It will be appreciated that the system 900 may be adapted to implement asuitable privacy policy which protects the personal information ofparticipating consumers. That is, the system 900 may limit access to thedata, or portions of the data, in a purchaser profile that is madeavailable to end-users 924 by profiler 906, depending upon the identityof end-user 924 and/or the wishes of a particular consumer. For example,the system 900 may, prior to enrolling a consumer, give the consumerappropriate notification regarding any and all potential disclosures ofconsumer enrollment data and/or purchase data and/or data residing in apurchaser profile that has been generated by the system. Moreover, thesystem may permit the consumer to identify the types of data that theconsumer does not authorize the system to disclose to end-users 924and/or to identify the types of end-users 924 whom the consumer does notwish to grant access to data regarding that consumer.

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the inventionherein makes reference to the accompanying drawings and pictures, whichshow the exemplary embodiment by way of illustration and its best mode.While these exemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, it should beunderstood that other embodiments may be realized and that logical andmechanical changes may be made without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. Thus, the detailed description herein ispresented for purposes of illustration only and not of limitation. Forexample, the steps recited in any of the method or process descriptionsmay be executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical electronic transaction system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to saidprocessor for storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to theprocessor for inputting digital data; an application program stored insaid memory and accessible by said processor for directing processing ofdigital data by said processor; a display device coupled to theprocessor and memory for displaying information derived from digitaldata processed by said processor; and a plurality of databases. Variousdatabases used herein may include: client data; merchant data; financialinstitution data; and/or like data useful in the operation of thepresent invention. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, usercomputer may include an operating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000,Linux, Solaris, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. User computer can be ina home or business environment with access to a network. In an exemplaryembodiment, access is through the Internet through acommercially-available web-browser software package.

Communication among the parties in accordance with the present inventionmay be accomplished through any suitable communication protocols, suchas, for example, a telephone network, Intranet, Internet, point ofinteraction device (point of sale device, personal digital assistant,cellular phone, kiosk, etc.), online communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), networked or linkeddevices and/or the like. One skilled in the art will also appreciatethat, for security reasons, any databases, systems, devices, servers orother components of the present invention may consist of any combinationthereof at a single location or at multiple locations, wherein eachdatabase or system includes any of various suitable security features,such as firewalls, access codes, encryption, decryption, compression,decompression, and/or the like.

Any databases discussed herein may be any type of database, such asrelational, hierarchical, graphical, object-oriented, and/or otherdatabase configurations. Common database products that may be used toimplement the databases include DB2 by IBM (White Plains, N.Y.), variousdatabase products available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores,Calif.), Microsoft Access or MSSQL by Microsoft Corporation (Redmond,Wash.), or any other suitable database product. Moreover, the databasesmay be organized in any suitable manner, for example, as data tables orlookup tables. Each record may be a single file, a series of files, alinked series of data fields or any other data structure. Association ofcertain data may be accomplished through any desired data associationtechnique such as those known or practiced in the art. For example, theassociation may be accomplished either manually or automatically.Automatic association techniques may include, for example, a databasesearch, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, and/or the like. Theassociation step may be accomplished by a database merge function, forexample, using a “key field” in preselected databases or data sectors.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be merged on the basisof the type of data in the key field. In this regard, the datacorresponding to the key field in each of the merged data tables ispreferably the same or of the same type. However, data tables havingsimilar, though not identical, data in the key fields may also be mergedby using AGREP, for example.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible byparticipants. In one embodiment, the Internet Information Server,Microsoft Transaction Server, and Microsoft SQL Server, are used inconjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT web serversoftware, a Microsoft SQL database system, and a Microsoft CommerceServer. Additionally, components such as Access or SQL Server, Oracle,Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be used to provide anADO-compliant database management system.

The term “webpage” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, Javascript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS),helper applications, plug-ins, and the like. A server may include awebservice which receives a request from a browser which includes a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789). Thewebservice retrieves the appropriate webpages and sends the webpages tothe IP address.

The present invention may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the presentinvention may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memoryelements, processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and thelike, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control ofone or more microprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, thesoftware elements of the present invention may be implemented with anyprogramming or scripting language such as C, C++, Java, COBOL,assembler, PERL, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, extensible markuplanguage (XML), with the various algorithms being implemented with anycombination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or otherprogramming elements. Further, it should be noted that the presentinvention may employ any number of conventional techniques for datatransmission, signaling, data processing, network control, and the like.Still further, the invention may include cryptography. For a basicintroduction of cryptography and network security, the following may behelpful references: (1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms,And Source Code In C,” by Bruce Schneier, published by john Wiley & Sons(second edition, 1996); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson,published by O'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & NetworkSecurity: Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published byPrentice Hall; all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

It will be appreciated, that many applications of the present inventioncould be formulated. One skilled in the art will appreciate that thenetwork may include any system for exchanging data or transactingbusiness, such as the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, WAN, LAN,satellite communications, and/or the like. It is noted that the networkmay be implemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. The parties may interact with the system viaany input device such as a keyboard, mouse, kiosk, personal digitalassistant, handheld computer (e.g., Palm Pilot®), cellular phone and/orany suitable communication or data input modality. Similarly, theinvention could be used in conjunction with any suitable personalcomputer, network computer, workstation, minicomputer, mainframe, or thelike running any operating system such as any version of Windows,Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, Ma-cOS, OS/2, BeOS,Linux, UNIX, Solaris or the like. Moreover, although the invention isfrequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the invention may also be implemented usingIPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI or any number of existing or futureprotocols. Moreover, the system contemplates the use, sale ordistribution of any goods, services or information over any networkhaving similar functionality described herein.

The computing units may be connected with each other via a datacommunication network. If the network is in the nature of a publicnetwork, it may be advantageous to presume the network to be insecureand open to eavesdroppers. In the illustrated implementation, thenetwork may comprise the Internet. In this context, the computers may ormay not be connected to the internet at all times. For instance, thecustomer computer may employ a modem to occasionally connect to theinternet, whereas the bank computing center may maintain an intermittentor permanent connection to the internet. Specific information related tothe protocols, standards, and application software utilized inconnection with the Internet is generally known to those skilled in theart and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See, for example, DilipNaik, “Internet Standards and Protocols” (1998); “Java 2 Complete”,various authors, (Sybex 1999); Deborah Ray and Eric Ray, “Mastering HTML4.0” (1997); and Loshin, “TCP/IP Clearly Explained” (1997), the contentsof which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components may be suitably coupled to the network viadata links including a variety of communications media and protocolssuch as, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider (ISP)over the local loop as is typically used in connection with standardmodem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods. Thesystem components may independently, separately or collectively residewithin a local area network (LAN) which interfaces to network via aleased line (T1, D3, etc.) or other desired communication methods. See,e.g., Gilbert Held, “Understanding Data Communications” (1996), herebyincorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”,“cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device to facilitateonline commerce transactions. The customer has a computing unit in theform of a personal computer, although other types of computing units maybe used including laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, set-topboxes, touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computingunit implemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the invention. The bank has acomputing center shown as a main frame computer. However, the bankcomputing center may be implemented in other forms, such as amini-computer, a PC server, a network of computers, or the like.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

An “account” or “account number”, as used herein, may include anydevice, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smart chip,digital signal, analog signal, biometric or other identifier/indiciasuitably configured to allow the consumer to access, interact with orcommunicate with the system such as, for example, one or more of anauthorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like which mayoptionally be located on or associated with a rewards card, charge card,credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card, smart card,magnetic stripe card, bar code card, transponder, radio frequency cardor an associated account. The account number may be distributed andstored in any form of plastic, electronic, magnetic, radio frequency,wireless, audio and/or optical device capable of transmitting ordownloading data from itself to a second device. A customer accountnumber may be, for example, a sixteen-digit credit card number, althougheach credit provider has its own numbering system, such as thefifteen-digit numbering system used by American Express. Each company'scredit card numbers comply with that company's standardized format suchthat the company using a sixteen-digit format will generally use fourspaced sets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 0000 00000000”. The first five to seven digits are reserved for processingpurposes and identify the issuing bank, card type, etc. In this example,the last (sixteenth) digit is used as a sum check for the sixteen-digitnumber. The intermediary eight-to-ten digits are used to uniquelyidentify the customer. A merchant account number may be, for example,any number or alpha-numeric characters that identifies a particularmerchant for purposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation,reporting, or the like.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the presentinvention may be embodied as a method, a data processing system, adevice for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirelysoftware embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or an embodimentcombining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore, thepresent invention may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The present invention is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousaspects of the invention. It will be understood that each functionalblock of the block diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, andcombinations of functional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations, respectively, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions which execute on the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus create means for implementing the functionsspecified in the flowchart block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions.

For more information on loyalty systems, transaction systems, electroniccommerce systems and digital wallet systems, see, for example, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/836,213, filed on Apr. 17, 2001, byinventors Voltmer, et al., and entitled “System And Method For NetworkedLoyalty Program”; U.S. Continuation-In-Part patent application Ser. No.10/027,984, as filed on Dec. 20, 2001 by inventors Ariff, et, al. andentitl″ed System And Method For Networked Loyalty Prog″ram; U.S.Continuation-In-Part patent application Ser. No. 10/010,947 filed onNov. 6, 2001 by inventors Haines, et, al. and entitl″ed System AndMethod For Networked Loyalty Prog″ram; U.S. Continuation-In-Part patentapplication Ser. No. 10/084,744 filed on Feb. 26, 2002 by inventorsBishop, et, al. and entitl″ed System And Method For Securing DataThrough A PDA Por″tal; the Shop AM EX™system disclosed in U.S. PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/230,190 filed Sep. 5, 2000; the MR as Currency™and Loyalty Rewards Systems disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Ser.No. 60/197,296 filed on Apr. 14, 2000; U.S. Patent Application Ser. No.60/200,492 filed Apr. 28, 2000; U.S. Patent Application Ser. No.60/201,114 filed May 2, 2000; the digital wallet system disclosed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/652,899 filed Aug. 31, 2000; thestored value card disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/241,188 filed Feb. 1, 1999; the system for facilitating transactionsusing secondary transaction numbers disclosed in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/800,461 filed Mar. 7, 2001; and also in related U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/187,620 filed Mar. 7, 2000;U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/200,625 filed Apr. 28,2000; U.S. Ser. No. 09/834,478 filed on Apr. 13, 2001 by Chien, et, al.and entitled “System And Method For Using Loyalty Points” and U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/213,323 filed May 22, 2000,all of which are herein incorporated by reference. Other examples ofonline membership reward systems are disclosed in Netcenti,ves U.S. Pat.No. 5,774,870, issued on Jun. 30, 1998, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,412,issued on Dec. 29, 1999, both of which are hereby incorporated byreferen

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of any or all the claims or the invention. As usedherein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus. Further, no element described herein is required for thepractice of the invention unless expressly described as “essential” or“critical”.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific embodiments. However, it will be appreciated thatvarious modifications and changes can be made without departing from thescope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Thespecification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative manner,rather than a restrictive one, and all such modifications are intendedto be included within the scope of present invention. Accordingly, thescope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims andtheir legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given above. Forexample, the steps recited in any of the method or process claims may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented in theclaims.

1. A method for facilitating earning loyalty points, wherein the loyaltypoints are associated with a geographic area, said method including:maintaining a database in a computer for storing geographic area loyaltypoints in a loyalty account corresponding to a participant; receivingpurchase data in a transaction file at a server associated with thecomputer from a point-of-sale terminal, said purchase data including aretailer item identifier and geographical area information; determiningan amount of geographic area loyalty points based on said purchase data;updating said loyalty account with said geographic area loyalty pointsby adding the determined amount of geographic area loyalty points to apreexisting amount of geographic loyalty points in the loyalty account;developing standardized information using the computer by associatingsaid retailer item identifier, said geographical area information, and amanufacturer identifier; and performing data analysis using the computerand using said standardized information.
 2. The method of claim 1,further including redeeming said geographic area loyalty points in apre-determined geographic area.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein saiddetermining an amount of geographic area loyalty points based on saidpurchase data includes calculating said geographic area loyalty pointsusing at least one of a formula, ratio, percentage, consumer level,cellular phone caller location, global positioning system information,point level, retailer level, manufacturer level, and reward level. 4.The method of claim 1, further including informing a consumer of saidloyalty points in real-time at the point-of-sale terminal.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein said method is implemented by an interactive, onlinecomputer system.
 6. The method of claim 1, further including providing asuggestive sale in a geographic area.
 7. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding at least one of pooling, gifting and transferring saidgeographic area loyalty points.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein saidstep of receiving purchase data includes receiving consumer data from adual use transaction card.
 9. A method for facilitating redeemingloyalty points, wherein the loyalty points are associated with ageographic area, said method including: maintaining a database in acomputer for storing geographic area loyalty points in a loyalty accountcorresponding to a participant; receiving a request at the computerrelated to a requested geographic redemption area to redeem an amount ofsaid geographic area loyalty points; determining if said requestedgeographic redemption area is associated with said geographic arealoyalty points; and adjusting said loyalty account based upon saidamount of geographic area loyalty points; receiving purchase data in atransaction file at a server associated with the computer from apoint-of-sale terminal, said purchase data including a retailer itemidentifier and geographical area information; developing standardizedinformation using the computer by associating said retailer itemidentifier, said geographical area information, and a manufactureridentifier; and performing data analysis using the computer and usingsaid standardized information.
 10. The method of claim 9, furtherincluding earning said geographic area loyalty points in apre-determined geographic area.
 11. The method of claim 9, furtherincluding providing an award to said participant, wherein said awardincludes at least one of providing a coupon, certificate, gift card,code, good, and service.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein determiningif said requested geographic redemption area is associated with saidgeographic area loyalty points includes using at least one of: zipcodes, retailer identification codes, retailer item identifier, storeidentifier, warranty data, service establishment codes, SKU codes, UPCmanufacturer codes, consumer ID, retailer ID, manufacturer ID, purchaserprofile, consumer enrollment data, retailer loyalty identifier, consumeraccount, aggregate consumer account, consumer profile, supplementarymember profile, and third party provider information.
 13. The method ofclaim 9, wherein said adjusting said loyalty account based upon saidamount of geographic area loyalty points includes calculating saidgeographic area loyalty points using at least one of a formula, ratio,percentage, geographic area information, cellular phone caller location,global positioning system information, consumer level, point level,retailer level, manufacturer level, and reward level.
 14. The method ofclaim 9, wherein said receiving a request related to a requestedgeographic redemption area to redeem an amount of said geographic arealoyalty points includes receiving a request based upon a rewardscatalog, wherein said rewards catalog includes at least one of: papercatalog, online catalog, customized catalog, customized catalog basedupon geographic area information and customized catalog based uponlevels of participants.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein said methodis implemented by an interactive, online computer system.
 16. The methodof claim 9, further including at least one of pooling, gifting andtransferring said geographic area loyalty points.
 17. The method ofclaim 9, further including calculating an exchange rate betweengeographic areas.
 18. The method of claim 9, further includingdetermining if said request is related to at least one of a particularproduct and a particular service.